
Class _ 
Book _ 






a 



Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




Apple Trees in Bloom 



SIXTY LESSONS 
IN AGRICULTURE 



BY 



BURT C. BUFFUM, M.S. 

FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF THE WYOMING EXPERIMENT STATION 

AND PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING 

AND 

DAVID CLEMENT DEAVER 

PRACTICAL FARMER 




3 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 






Copyright, 1913, by 
B. C. BUFFUM and D. C. DEAVER. 

Copyright, 1913, in Great Britain. 



B. AND D AGRICULTURE. 

E. P. I 






f.d 



PREFACE 

This book is intended for the sixth, seventh, or 
eighth grade ; and the subject matter and language 
are well within the range of pupils of these grades. 
The treatment is not technical, and therefore the 
book can be used in schools whose teachers have 
had no special training in the subject of school 
agriculture. 

The aims of the book are to increase the efficiency 
of farming operations and to improve the general 
character of farm life by presenting useful informa- 
tion and by giving directions for practical labora- 
tory work which may be done at school or at home. 
These exercises are easy to perform and require 
no special apparatus. If this experimental work is 
done with care, the pupil will acquire, in addition 
to the fundamental facts of agriculture, an excellent 
training in scientific methods. 

The references at the end of the lessons are 
mainly the Farmers' Bulletins of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, which can be obtained 
free or at little cost. These should be supplemented 
by state bulletins and other available references bear- 
ing on local conditions. The teacher's attention is 

3 



4 PREFACE 

called particularly to the following bulletins because 
of their great usefulness in rural school agriculture : 

Exercises i?i Elementary Agriculture. Bulletin 
1 86, Experiment Stations Office, Washington, D.C. 

School Exercises in Plant Production. Farmers' 
Bulletin, 408. 

Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs. Farmers' 
Bulletin, 385. 

School Lessons 071 Corn. Farmers' Bulletin, 409. 

Forestry in Nature Study. Farmers' Bulletin, 468. 

Fifty Common Birds of Farm and Orchard. 
Farmers' Bulletin, 513. 



CONTENTS 



LESSON 












»7 


I. 


Farming 






7 


II. 


The Farm 






IO 


III. 


The Farmer and the Weather 






14 


IV. 


The Soil 






21 


V. 


Fertility of the Soil 






26 


VI. 


Moisture in the Soil 






3i 


VII. 


Tilling the Soil . 






35 


VIII. 


The Plow and Plowing 






40 


IX. 


The Plant and the Soil . 






43 


X. 


The Seed Bed 






46 


XI. 


Seeds 






49 


XII. 


Growing Plants by Cuttings, Scions, 


AND 


Buds 


52 


XIII. 


Transplanting 






57 


XIV. 


Sunlight and Plant Growth . 






61 


XV. 


Plants Grown on the Farm 






64 


XVI. 


Power on the Farm . 






• 69 


XVII. 


Harvesting Crops 






■ 73 


XVIII. 


Forage Crops .... 






• 79 


XIX. 


Timothy and Clover . 






• 83 


XX. 


Alfalfa 






. 87 


XXI. 


Millet, Sorghum, and Other Crops 






. 91 


XXII. 


Wheat . 


• * * 






• 97 


XXIII. 


Corn 




. 






. 103 


XXIV. 


Rice 




• • • 






. in 


XXV. 


Oats 




• • • 






. 114 


XXVI. 


Barley 




. 






. Il8 


XXVII. 


Rye 




. 






. 122 


tXVIII. 


Cotton 




. 




• 125 


XXIX. 


Flax, H 


EMP, AND 


Other Fiber Plai 

5 


^TS 




• '3° 



CONTENTS 



LESSON PAGE 

XXX. Sugar Plants 135 

XXXI. Potatoes 141 

XXXII. Melons, Pumpkins, and Cucumbers . . . 147 

XXXIII. Tobacco 150 

XXXIV. Vegetable Gardening 154 

XXXV. Crops Grown for Beverages . . . -157 

XXXVI. Little-known Plants 161 

XXXVII. Pome Fruits 167 

XXXVIII. Stone Fruits 171 

XXXIX. Citrus Fruits 176 

XL. Grapes 180 

XLI. Small Fruits 185 

XLII. Nuts 189 

XLIII. Forestry 194 

XLIV. Weeds and Plant Diseases . . . .198 

XLV. Mixed Farming 203 

XLVI. Horses 206 

XLVII. Cattle 211 

XLVIII. Sheep and Goats 216 

XLIX. Swine 222 

L. Poultry 225 

LI. Insects ......... 229 

LII. Food of Farm Animals 237 

LIII. The Farmer's Friends 241 

LIV. Improvement of Plants and Animals . . 246 

LV. Irrigation Farming 249 

LVI. Drainage 253 

LVII. Dry Farming . 256 

LVIII. Beautifying the Home Grounds . . . 260 

LIX. The Farm Home 264 

LX. The Call to the Farm 267 

INDEX 269 



SIXTY LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE 



LESSON I 
FARMING 




Farming a business. — Farming or agriculture is 
the business of raising crops and domestic animals. 
A crop is anything grown from the soil, as a crop of 
wheat, a crop of potatoes, or a crop of apples. 

There are many different kinds of farming. If the 
farmer cultivates large fields, we call his business 
agriculture, which means field culture. If domestic 
animals are raised on pasture lands, we call the busi- 
ness grazing, ranging, or herding. The business of 

7 



8 FARMING 

cultivating a small field, an orchard, or a garden is 
called horticulture, which means garden culture. 
The growing of flowers is called floriculture. The 
growing of trees for wood or lumber is called forestry. 
Irrigation farming is carried on in dry regions by 
applying water from streams to the soil by means of 
canals or water pipes. Dry farming is carried on in 
regions of little rainfall by special methods of culti- 
vation which partially prevent the loss of soil 
moisture by evaporation. 

A great industry. — Agriculture is the greatest in- 
dustry in the world. Through it we get food, clothing, 
houses, and many other things which are necessary 
to our comfort and happiness. 

Many farm products must be made over or manufac- 
tured into more useful form before they can be of 
service to man. This gives rise to manufacturing, 
which changes raw materials into useful products. 
Most of the raw materials in manufacturing come from 
the farm. The two most important lines of manu- 
facturing are the making of food products and clothing. 
Wheat and other grains are ground into flour ; milk 
and cream are made into cheese and butter ; cattle, 
hogs, and sheep are slaughtered and converted into 
beef, pork, and mutton; and cotton, wool, and flax 
are woven into cloth. 

Commerce. — Our railroad cars and ships are 
loaded mainly with farm products or manufactures 
whose raw materials come from the farm. Think of 



FARMING 9 

the large crops of wheat, corn, vegetables, and fruits, 
and the great number of live stock which must be 
shipped from the farms to the cities of our country 
and other countries. Think of the farm products 
which we get from other lands, rice, bananas, spices, 
coffee, and tea. You will see that commerce, which 
is the buying and selling and transportation of goods, 
deals with products of the farm. 

Wealth. — The true wealth of the world is the result 
of production from the soil and from labor. We 
often think of gold, or money, as wealth ; but it 
has little value in itself. As we use the quart to 
measure milk, and the bushel to measure wheat and 
corn, so we use gold to measure the value of our 
wealth. If we could not exchange money for the 
things from the farm that we must have in order to 
live, all the money in the world would not be so 
valuable as a crust of bread. 

QUESTIONS 

i . What is farming ? 

2. Name and define the several kinds of farming. 

3. What kinds of farming are carried on in the region in 
which yOu live ? 

4. What are some of the most important products of the soil ? 

5. Make a list of the products of your own locality, arrang- 
ing them in the order of their importance to the community. 



LESSON II 
THE FARM 

What constitutes a farm. — As you look over a farm 
you see the farmhouse, the barn and sheds, the garden 
and orchard, the fields and fences, the road, and per- 
haps a stream of water and a wood lot. All these 







Modern Farmhouse and Barns 

things are needed upon the farm in order to carry on 
the work which we call farming. 

The size of farms varies from a few acres to thousands 
of acres. A square mile or section of land contains 
640 acres, and farms in most of our country are natural 
divisions of a section. A half section contains 320 

10 



THE FARM 



ii 



acres, and a quarter section 160 acres. What part of 
a section is 80 acres ? 40 acres ? 

The house is for the comfort and protection of the 
family, and the barn and sheds for the animals, crops, 
implements, and 
vehicles. In the 
garden are grown 
the vegetables and 
small fruits. In 
the orchard grow 
the tree and bush 
fruits, such as ap- 
ples, cherries, and 
raspberries. 

Crops. — Usually 
several kinds of 
crops and domestic 
animals are raised 
upon a single farm. 
In any particular 
year, one field on 
the farm may be 
in corn, one in 
wheat, one in clover or timothy for hay, and another in 
grass for pasture. In the pasture the live stock run 
free to graze upon the growing grass, and the fences 
keep them from the other crops. 

Water supply. — Every farm must have a supply of 
water for the use of the family and the farm animals. 




A Farm Windmill 



12 



THE FARM 



Sometimes the supply comes from a spring, but most 
often it comes from wells and is pumped up by hand, 
windmill, or gasoline engine. On some farms a stream 
of water flows across the fields, and this is used by the 
animals for drinking. A good, pure water supply 
which does not fail during a long drouth of summer is 
of great value to the farm. 




Good Roads are an Aid to the Farmer 

Woodlands. — The wood lot produces lumber for 
buildings and fences and wood for fuel. Very often 
the hilly part of a farm, where crops cannot be success- 
fully grown, is kept in timber. If a brook or creek 
flows through the farm, there is usually a strip of wood- 
land on each side of the stream. Such a woodland is 
often used as a pasture as well as for a supply of timber. 
In parts of the country the wood lot consists of planted 
trees, and is placed where it protects the house and 



THE FARM 13 

barn from the severe cold winds of the winter and the 
destructive storms of summer. 

Roads. — Every farm must be connected with the 
surrounding country by roads. Crops must be hauled 
to the market town and other goods brought back. 
Members of the family must travel over roads in going 
to town, church, and school, and in making neighbor- 
hood visits. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are some of the most important features of a good 

farm ? 

2. Learn the sizes of several farms in your neighborhood. 

What is the average size ? 

3. What are the uses of a wood lot ? 

4. Of what value are good roads to a farmer ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Draw a map of the farm on which you live, showing the 
fields, roads, lanes, wood lot, orchard, garden, house and lawn, 
barn and barn lot, and other lots. 

2. If you do not live on a farm, draw a map of an imaginary 

farm. 



LESSON III 
THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 

Weather and climate. — The farmer lives in close 
touch with nature. He is working with plant and 
animal life and is interested in all those things that 
affect plants and animals. Perhaps there is nothing 
of greater importance to him than weather and climate. 
Weather is the condition of the air at any given time. 
Climate is the average of conditions which prevail for 
a long time, a season, a year, or many years. The 
conditions of the atmosphere that we are most interested 
in are temperature, moisture, and winds. 

Seasons. — You have noticed how plant life changes 
with the seasons. During cold weather, most plants 
go through a resting period. As the frosts of autumn 
come, the leaves lose their green color and finally die. 
The plants then remain inactive until the warm spring 
comes again. The seeds which ripen in fall remain 
dormant through the winter and begin to grow when the 
air and soil become warm in the spring. As the days 
grow longer and warmer the plants grow more rapidly, 
until they mature in midsummer or early fall. 

Work changes with the seasons. — The seasons 
largely control the work upon the farm. The times of 

14 



THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 15 

planting and harvesting are the busiest seasons, while 
the winter is the time of least work, although the good 
farmer can find plenty of work to do even in the winter. 
The work from day to day is controlled by the weather. 
A heavy rain may prevent the farmer from tilling the 
soil or harvesting the hay or grain. A clear day with 
dry air is just the time for cutting hay so that it will 
dry quickly. 

A great problem. — The growing season is the most 
important time of year for the farmer. It is the 
period from the last killing frost of spring to the first 
killing frost of autumn. The longer the growing season, 
the greater is the yield of farm products. One of the 
great problems for the farmer is to arrange the planting 
of his crops to avoid the killing frosts of spring and 
yet have them mature before the autumn frosts. A 
late frost in the spring or early summer sometimes 
does great damage to plants, especially to fruit trees. 
An early frost in the fall may injure the crops. Some- 
times a hard frost occurs before the corn is ripe, and 
serious damage to the crop results. In sections of the 
country where the growing season is too short for 
the successful growing of a crop, much work is being 
done in plant breeding to secure new varieties which 
will mature early and thus be safe from frost. 

Rainfall. — The total amount of rainfall during the 
year is of far less importance than the amount and fre- 
quency of rain during the growing season. In the corn 
belt of the United States the yield of corn from year 



16 THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 




THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 17 

to year is determined more by the rainfall than by 
anything else. A long dry period during the summer 
will always cause a sharp decrease in corn production. 

Sunshine. — A growing plant needs sunshine, and 
the longer the day and the clearer the sky, the more 
rapid will be the growth of crops. North of our 
country the growing season is quite short, but the 
days are longer, and the longer periods of sunlight 
cause the crops to ripen earlier than in more southern 
regions where the days are not so long. Dry, sunny 
days are of especial value in the harvesting of hay. 
Corn is a crop which requires much sunshine. In 
warm countries which are very cloudy, corn does not 
thrive. 

Effects of winds. — The wind is of great interest to 
the farmer. Sometimes crops are damaged by hot, 
dry winds. Occasionally corn, wheat, and oats are 
blown down by heavy winds and the crops are damaged. 
To protect the house and barn from windstorms in 
the summer and cold winds in the winter, the farmer 
plants a shelter belt of trees. 

Use of farm buildings. — The need for a house and 
other farm buildings is largely due to the weather. 
The farmer builds a house for shelter from the weather 
and builds barns for his live stock, and granaries for 
his grain. In the winter a large part of the food of 
animals is used as fuel to keep them warm instead of 
being used to make flesh. It pays to protect animals 
from the cold, for less food will be used to keep up the 

B. AND D. AG. — 2 



i8 



THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 



heat of the body and they will fatten with less food than 
if left out in the wet and cold. 

The Weather Bureau. — The farmer is greatly 
benefited by the forecasts of the Weather Bureau. 
In fruit-growing regions, particular attention is given 
to frost predictions. Very often a fruit crop, worth 




Smudge Pots are burned in the Orchard to prevent Frost 



thousands of dollars, is saved by starting fires in the 
orchards to prevent the frost. Very many farm opera- 
tions can be controlled by knowing the weather which 
is to come in the next thirty-six hours. The intelligent 
farmer pays close attention to the forecasts of the 
Weather Bureau and gives no attention to the quack 
forecasts for long periods of time which are so often 
given in patent medicine almanacs. 



THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 



19 



QUESTIONS 

i . What is the difference between weather and climate ? 

2. How do the seasons govern the farmer's work? 

3. What is the growing season ? 

4. What is the average length of the growing season in your 

locality ? 

5. What crops are sometimes damaged by late frosts in 
spring? What crops are sometimes damaged by early frosts in 
autumn ? 

6. How may orchards be protected from frosts ? 

7. What crops are sometimes injured by a long drouth in 
the summer ? 

8. What are the most important climatic conditions needed 
by growing crops ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Keep a record of daily weather observations. In the morn- 
ing and evening note the temperature, direction and velocity of 
the wind, the condition of the sky, and precipitation if any. Use 
the following form of weather record : 



Date 


Hour 


Tem- 
per- 
ature 


Direction 
of Wind 

■ 


Velocity 
of Wind 


Sky 


Rain 

OR 

Snow 


Weather since 
Last Observation 


Sept. 10 
Sept. 10 


8 A.M. 
4 P.M. 


55 
70 


N.W. 
S.W. 


Brisk 
Light 


Clear 

Cloudy 





Frost at night 





2. Study the daily weather map and weather forecast of the 
Weather Bureau, which you may find in a daily newspaper. 
Cut out the weather maps, and fasten to a sheet of cardboard 
those for one month. To make the dim lines stand out clearly, 
color them with oil crayons. Use red to color the isobars around 



2 o THE FARMER AND THE WEATHER 

a Low, and blue to color those around a High. Use another 
color for the isothermal line of freezing, and still another for the 
isothermal line of zero. 

3. Keep a set of notes on the seasonal changes in plant and 
animal life, such as the dates of bird migrations, blooming of 
early wild flowers, blooming of fruit trees, leafing of forest 
trees, and the planting and harvesting of crops. 

REFERENCES 

Write to the director of the Weather Bureau section in which 
you live for publications on the climate of your section. Write 
also to the Agricultural Experiment Station in your state for 
bulletins on the climate of the state. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 104, Notes on frost; 401, Protection of 
orchards in Pacific Northwest from spring frosts by means of 
fires and smudges. 



LESSON IV 
THE SOIL 

How soil is made. — By the action of air and water, 
and heat and cold, the solid rock of the earth's surface 
decays and breaks up into fine particles. The layer 
of fine mineral particles is called soil. But in addition 
to the rock particles, soil contains water, air, minute 
living forms, and decaying plant and animal matter. 
All of these things are necessary to plant growth. 

Water in the soil. — When soil is saturated, all the 
spaces between the soil grains are filled with water and 
the soil contains no air. Part of the water will drain 
away and air will flow in to take its place. The water 
which drains off from a saturated soil is called free 
water. The water remaining in the soil exists as thin 
sheets or films around the soil particles. This is called 
film water. In this water is dissolved the food for 
the growing plants. 

Air in the soil. — The roots of growing plants need 
air. The useful bacteria in the soil also use air. There- 
fore it is necessary that there be a free movement of 
air in the pores of the soil. Too much water in the 
soil prevents the air from reaching the plant roots, 
and the crops do not thrive. If the soil remains satu- 
rated too long, the plants die for lack of soil air. 

21 




Roots, Leaves, and Stems or the Forest make Humus 



THE SOIL 



23 



Living forms in the soil. - The living forms in the soil 
are mainly microscopic plants called bacteria. These 
soil bacteria, as you will learn in the next chapter, 
add much to the fertility of the soil. 

Humus. — The dead organic matter, the remains of 
plants and animals, is called humus. 

The roots, leaves, and stems of plants furnish much 
of the humus. The bodies of dead earthworms and 
insects in the soil also add to the total amount of 
humus. 

Soil particles. — According to their size, we divide 
the soil particles into three classes; clay, silt, and sand. 
The very finest particles form clay. Larger particles, 
but still quite small, form silt. Coarse soil grains, 
usually particles of quartz rock, are sand. These 
grains of sand are large enough to be seen with the 
naked eye. 

Kinds of soil. — Soils made up mostly of clay or silt, 
or clay and silt together, are called clay soils. Soils 
made up mostly of sand are called sandy soils. Soils 
which contain large proportions of clay and silt and 
sand are called loams. If the amount of sand is greater 
than the amount of silt and clay, we have a sandy 
loam. If the amount of silt and clay is greater than 
the amount of sand, we have a clay loam. 

If a soil contains a large amount of humus, it is called 
a humus soil. The soil of a swamp is of this kind. 

Topsoil and subsoil. — The layer of soil which is 
plowed and worked is called the topsoil. The part 



24 



THE SOIL 




underneath is the subsoil. The topsoil is usually 
much looser than the subsoil, and darker because of 
the humus it contains. On the steep bank of streams 

you can often see 

J 
PlBWED 



clearly the differ- 
ence between the 
dark topsoil and 
the lighter-colored 
subsoil. 

Heavy and light. 
— The farmer of- 



ten speaks of heavy 
soil and light soil. 
A heavy soil is one 
through which it is hard to pull the plow. A tough 
clay is hard to plow and is called a heavy soil. A soil 
that is easy to work is called a light soil. Sandy soils 
are easy to plow and therefore are light soils. 

QUESTIONS 

i . What things constitute soil ? 

2. Define free water, film or capillary water. 

3. What is humus? 

4. What are the classes of soil on the basis of the size of the 
soil particles ? 

5. How does the topsoil differ from the subsoil ? 

6. What is meant by a light soil ? By a heavy soil ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Bring to school samples of several kinds of soil that are 
found in the neighborhood. 



THE SOIL 25 

2. Into a tall fruit jar that is nearly full of water, place a hand- 
ful of garden loam. Stir thoroughly for a minute or two, and let 
the jar stand for several days. After the stirring has ceased, the 
sand will settle to the bottom in a very short time ; the silt will 
settle in a much longer time and form a distinct layer above the 
sand ; the clay will settle so slowly that it will take several 
days before the water becomes quite clear. At the end of the 
experiment you will have the soil divided into three fairly 
distinct layers. 

REFERENCES 

Soil bulletins of the Agricultural College and of the Experiment 
Station in your state. Farmers' Bulletins : 77, Liming of soils ; 
245, Renovation of worn-out soils; 257, Soil fertility; 266, 
Management of soil to conserve moisture ; 406, Soil conserva- 
tion. 



LESSON V 
FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 

Fertile soil. — The chemical composition and the 
physical condition of the soil determine its fertility. 
In order to be fertile a soil must have the mineral and 
organic matter which gives food to the plants; and 
it must also be in such a condition that the growing 
plants can secure their food. 

Plant foods. — The food of plants consists mainly 
of carbon dioxide, water, oxygen, and compounds of 
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium. Many 
other substances furnish plant food, but these are of 
greatest importance. Plants get carbon dioxide from 
the air, water from the soil, and oxygen from the air 
and the soil. The other food materials come from the 
organic and mineral matter in the soil. 

Nitrogen is one of the most important elements in 
plant food, and the securing of the needed supply of 
nitrogen compounds is always one of the greatest 
problems to the farmer. Although four fifths of the 
air is nitrogen, yet plants cannot take nitrogen directly 
from the air. They must obtain it from the nitrogen 
compounds in the soil. Salts, called nitrates, are the 
best nitrogen-giving foods for plants. These salts 
and the organic matter in the soil furnish nitrogen. 

26 



FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 



27 



Barnyard manure is added to give nitrogen and other 
elements to the soil. Before the nitrogen in the organic 
matter can be used by the crops, it must be changed 
into nitrates by the bacteria in the soil. Thus the soil 
bacteria are the direct producers of nitrogen plant food. 




The Plant on the Left was grown in Poor Soil, the Other in Good Soil 

The legumes, such as the clovers, peas, beans, and 
alfalfa, in addition to furnishing valuable crops for man, 
are of great value in increasing the nitrogen supply. 
On the roots of the legumes may be found small swell- 
ings or nodules, in which are colonies of bacteria which 
have the power of taking the nitrogen from the air 



28 FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 

and changing it into nitrogen compounds which can 
be used by the legumes themselves and the succeeding 
crops. 

Phosphorus and potassium. — Crops remove such 
large amounts of phosphorus and potassium from 
soils that it is necessary to replace these elements by 
the use of fertilizers. Barnyard manure, bone meal, 
and phosphate rock are used to enrich the soil with 
phosphorus. Potassium is added to the soil in manure, 
potash, and wood ashes. 

If the soil is poor in calcium, lime, a compound of 
calcium, is added. Lime is more often added for other 
reasons, however, than that of supplying calcium. 

The other elements of plant foods are used in such 
small amounts that usually the supply in the soil is 
ample ; and it is not often necessary to add them by 
use of fertilizers. 

Condition of the soil. — The proper physical condi- 
tion of the soil enables the crops to obtain the food 
supply present in the soil. When we use such words 
as mellow, friable, fine, loose, porous, hard, cloddy, 
compact, sour, and sweet, we are speaking of the 
physical condition of the soil. Fineness or good tex- 
ture is the most important physical property of a soil, 
and it is one of the main objects of tillage. If the 
soil is cloddy, the plant food is locked up inside the 
clods, and is beyond the reach of the roots. More 
soil water and soil air are held in a soil of fine texture 
than in one of coarse texture. 



FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 29 

Effect of humus. — Humus is valuable in securing 
the proper texture of soil. A gravelly soil or sandy 
soil may be too loose for the plants to get a proper hold 
and enough water. Humus will improve it by binding 
the coarse particles together and by increasing the 
capacity for film water. A heavy clay soil may be 
too compact to allow proper drainage of surplus water 
and free access of air. Such a soil can be made lighter 
by the addition of humus. Thus, humus lessens the 
difference between a heavy clay soil and a light sandy 
soil by making them more loamy. The great value of 
barnyard manure is that it not only furnishes substances 
which are plant foods, but it also adds humus to im- 
prove the soil texture. 

Effect of sand. — Sometimes sand is mixed with a 
tough, heavy clay to make it easier to till and to give 
greater circulation of the soil water and soil air. 

Effect of lime. — Lime is sometimes put in a heavy 
clay soil to make it more porous and easier to work. 
At times a soil becomes sour by the presence of an acid, 
and its fertility is reduced. The application of lime will 
destroy the acid and thus sweeten the soil. Lime is 
more often applied for this than for any other purpose. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are the two things that determine the fertility of 
the soil ? 

2. What are some of the most important elements that plants 
require from the soil ? 



3° 



FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 



3. How do plants obtain nitrogen ? 

4. How may nitrogen be increased in the soil ? 

5. By what methods do farmers keep up the fertility of the 
soil? 

6. What is meant by the term "texture of the soil" ? 

7. What condition of soil requires an application of lime ? 

8. How does humus improve the soil ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Dig up the roots of clover or alfalfa and find the nodules in 
which are the colonies of bacteria that take nitrogen from the air 
and build it into nitrogenous substances that the plants can use. 

2. Make a ball of puddled clay and leave it to dry. Note the 
hard clod that forms. Make a similar ball of clay mixed with 
a little sand and one of clay mixed with a little lime. Do the 
dried balls form hard clods? How does lime or sand affect 
the texture of a clay soil ? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 44, Commercial fertilizers, composition 
and use ; 192, Barnyard manure. 



LESSON VI 
MOISTURE IN THE SOIL 

The water in the soil is one of the most important 
agents of fertility. No plants can grow without mois- 
ture, and it is only through the water that plant foods 
find their way from the soil into the plant. The water 
in the soil may be in any or all of the following three 
conditions : vapor, film moisture, and free water. 

Vapor. — The soil may be so dry that it has little 
moisture except that which is in the form of water vapor 
or gas. The soil absorbs much water vapor, but in this 
state the water is probably not used to any great extent 
by plants. 

Film moisture. — Much water is held in the soil in 
the form of film moisture. By film moisture is meant 
the water which clings around the soil particles and 
travels from one soil particle to another, if they are 
close enough together. In this way, the moisture is 
always moving from a moist to a drier soil. In a soil of 
fine texture, this film moisture will rise many feet 
above the level of the ground water. It is this film 
moisture that is of so much use to the plant and value 
to the farmer, because it supplies the plant with its 
water and its food. 

31 



32 MOISTURE IN THE SOIL 

Free water. — Water occurs in the soil as free water. 
The water in a well, or which stands in a post hole 
when dug in a wet time, comes from the free water in 
the soil. The free water of the soil finds its way out 
by drainage, appearing as springs where it comes to 
the surface. For most crops free water should not 
come closer to the surface of the soil than from two 
to four feet. 

Water brings food to plants. — Water is the carrier 
by which plants obtain their food from the soil. A 
constant current is slowly passing upward from the 
roots and evaporating from the leaves into the air. 
Thus a large amount of soil moisture passes from the 
ground into the growing plants and then into the air 
as water vapor. One half of all the moisture that falls 
on the land in the form of rain or snow soon evaporates 
directly from the soil. As the moisture evaporates 
from the surface of the soil, more soil water moves 
up from below, and thus much moisture is lost which 
might be used by the growing crop. One of the objects 
of tillage, by making a mulch of loose soil, is to prevent 
evaporation at the surface of the ground, and thus save 
the soil moisture for the crop. 

Sources of water. — In humid regions, the moisture 
is stored in the soil by the falling of rain or snow. In 
the farm lands of dry regions, water is applied to the 
soil by irrigation. Snow or rain falls upon the moun- 
tains in the arid regions, and the water is carried by 
streams from the mountain slopes through the more 



MOISTURE IN THE SOIL 



33 



level desert plains. By dams across the streams, the 
water is turned into canals and then spread over the 
land that is to be irrigated. 

The preparation of the soil so it will absorb the 
greatest amount of moisture from rain and snow 




Mountain Stream 



and the proper spreading of the water in the arid or 
semiarid belt by irrigation are important parts of 
farm practice. 



QUESTIONS 

i . In what three conditions does water exist in the soil ? 

2. In which condition is the water most useful to growing 
plants ? 

3. In what ways does the soil lose moisture? 

B. AND D. AG. — 3 



34 



MOISTURE IN THE SOIL 



4. What are the sources of soil water ? 

5. What is irrigation ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1 . Place two or three cubes of sugar, one upon the other, in a 
saucer, and pour in a small quantity of red ink. This shows the 
upward movement of film moisture by the force of capillarity. 
Tie pieces of cloth over the ends of three tall lamp chimneys. 
Place these in a pan or a large flat dish. Fill one lamp chim- 
ney with dry sand, another with dry loam, and the other 
with dry clay. Now pour water into the pan or dish to a 
depth of about an inch. In which soil does the moisture move 
upward most rapidly ? 

2. Repeat the above exercise, using chimneys of the same size, 
and equal volumes of sand, loam, and clay. Place each chimney 
in a separate saucer or other small dish. Measure the water 
added to each to determine which soil can hold the largest 
amount of film moisture. Be sure that the depth of water 
remaining in the bottom of each saucer is the same when you 
compare the amounts of water absorbed by the three soils. 

In these two exercises it is necessary to place a small wedge, a 
bit of cardboard or match, under each lamp chimney so that it 
may not rest so close to the bottom of the dish as to prevent the 
entrance of water. 

If long glass tubes could be used instead of lamp chimneys, 
it would be possible to show that film water will rise higher in a 
soil of fine texture than in one of coarse texture. 



LESSON VII 
TILLING THE SOIL 

Purpose of tilling the soil. — The soil is tilled for 
the purpose of making it more suitable for the growth 
of useful plants. There are but few crops which will 
grow in untilled soil. In general, good soils need 
only to be well tilled in order to produce large crops. 

Plowing. — The ground is plowed in order to loosen 
the soil and to turn under the layer of vegetable matter 
lying on the surface. By harrowing, the soil is made 
loose and fine in texture, and the humus thoroughly 
pulverized and mixed with the soil. 

Porous soil. — It is necessary to loosen the soil in 
order to plant the seeds which must be covered, and 
for the growing plants to take root. A loose porous 
soil will absorb more rain than a compact soil. In a 
loose soil the air can readily reach the plant roots and 
the useful soil bacteria. The finer the texture of the 
soil, the more film water it can hold, and the more 
plant food which the film water can dissolve from the 
soil particles. 

Soil mulch. — In dry regions the soil is tilled in 
order to prevent loss of soil moisture by evaporation. 
By making a layer of fine, loose soil on the surface, 
the upward capillary movement of film water is checked, 

35 



36 



TILLING THE SOIL 



and thus it is retained in the ground. This layer of 
pulverized soil is called a soil mulch. In other parts 
of the country where the summers may be dry, a soil 
mulch is formed by shallow cultivation to save the 




Deep Plowing 

water for the roots of the crops. Although there may 
be no need of cultivation to kill the weeds, yet the 
cultivated crops are often given a shallow plowing 
after each summer rain to form the mulch and thus 
check evaporation. 



TILLING THE SOIL 



37 




Disk Harrow 



BEAM 




General Purpose Plow 
Some Implements for Working the Soil 



^8 



d 



TILLING THE SOIL 



Implements. — The implements used to work the 
soil are the spade, hoe, plow, harrow, roller, clod 
crusher or planker, and leveler. Tilling requires more 
work than other farm operations, and it is usually 
done by hitching horses or mules, or engines, to the 
tilling machinery. 

Wet soil. - Some heavy soils of fine texture, like 
clay, may be spoiled if they are tilled when too wet. 
This puddles the soil so that air and water cannot pass 
through it. A soil that is apt to puddle can be im- 
proved by adding lime, sand, or humus. 

Cultivation. — The tilling of soil around plants is 
called cultivation. Some crops are sown so close 
together that they are allowed to grow without cul- 
tivation. Other crops are drilled in rows or planted 
in hills so that the soil between the rows or around the 

hills can be cul- 
tivated. 

Cultivators. — 




In earlier times 
cultivation of the 
soil was practi- 
cally all done with 
a hoe. The labor 
was severe, and 
only a small patch of land could be hoed by one man. 
Now crops are cultivated with machines, called cul- 
tivators, which are drawn by horses. A cultivator 
may stir the soil along a row or between several rows 



Cultivator 



TILLING THE SOIL 39 

at a time. The hand hoe is now little used except 
in gardening, or to thin the plants where they are too 
thick in the row, or to kill the few weeds that may be 
left by the cultivator. 

Cultivation is so valuable to all plants that we are 
beginning to cultivate crops like hay and small grains. 
This is done with harrows or with machines called 
horse weeders that scratch the ground without in- 
juring the plants. 

Tillage or cultivation of the soil makes the food 
materials in the soil more available to the plants, 
saves moisture, destroys weeds, and trains the plant 
roots to go deep into the soil. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What is tillage ? 

2. What results are obtained by tillage ? 

3. What are the advantages of having the soil loose and in 
fine texture ? 

4. What is a soil mulch ? How is it obtained ? 

5. Under what climatic conditions is a soil mulch of especial 
value to crops? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. If the pupils live in town, a visit to an implement store 
should be made in order to study plows and cultivators. 

2. Fill two large metal cans or pails with moist soil. Compact 
the soil by jarring the sides of the vessels. Weigh each, and 
place them in a dry place for a week. Do not disturb the soil 
of one, but make a soil mulch on the other by stirring each day 
the soil to a depth of two inches. Weigh each at the end of a 
week. Which has lost the greater amount of moisture ? 



LESSON VIII 
THE PLOW AND PLOWING 

Plows were probably the earliest farm implements 
used by civilized man. These plows were made out 
of crooked limbs of trees. At first they were drawn 
or pushed through the soil by men. Afterward they 
were drawn by oxen or horses. Now plows are made 
of steel and are drawn by horses, or mules, or steam 
engines, or gasoline tractors. 

Plowing. — The mark made by the plow, as it is 
pulled along through the soil, is called a furrow, and the 
part cut loose by the plow and turned over, is the furrow 
slice. When sod land is plowed, the furrow slice is 
turned upside down, covering the vegetable matter 
as deeply as the ground is plowed. Good plowing 
twists and breaks and crushes the soil, leaving it rough 
and open to the air, so other tools, which are used 
afterwards to smooth and fine the surface, can do the 
best work. Plowing, then, kills the plants which may 
be growing on the soil, buries the vegetation, and mixes 
it with the soil, breaks and pulverizes the soil particles, 
loosens the soil and lets the air and sunshine and water 
get into it and act upon it. Plowing helps to dry out 
wet soil and aids the movement of water in the soil. 

40 



THE PLOW AND PLOWING 



4i 



How deep to plow. - - Plows are not made to go very 
deep into the soil. Some sod lands are plowed less 
than three inches deep, and rarely does the deepest 




Steam Plow at Work 

plowing extend more than ten or twelve inches below 
the surface. Usually, farmers run their plows six or 
seven inches deep. 

When to plow. — The time the farmer should plow 
his land depends on the kind and condition of the soil, 



42 THE PLOW AND PLOWING 

and the kind of crops to be grown. Clay land, plowed 
in the fall, is better for wheat to be planted in the 
spring, and, on the other hand, spring-plowed land 
seems to produce better crops of corn or potatoes. 
Some soils may be spoiled if plowed when too wet, and in 
some instances a poor crop may be produced if too 
much of the subsoil is turned out on top of the land. 

Kind of plows. — Many men are working to improve 
the plow. There are two general kinds of plows, 
called moldboard plows and disk plows. Different 
kinds of plows are used for different kinds of land. 
They vary from heavy, wood plows to the light sod 
breaker with rods instead of moldboard, and from the 
simple disk plow to the heavy, deep tilling machine. 
Inventors are giving attention to rotary plows. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What results are obtained by plowing? 

2. In your locality to what depth is the land plowed for each 
of the leading crops? 

3. What is the effect of plowing when the soil is too wet ? 

4. Under what conditions is it well to plow the ground in the 
fall for crops that are planted in the spring ? 



LESSON IX 
THE PLANT AND THE SOIL 

Roots are the parts of plants which grow in the soil. 
Just as stems grow upward toward the light, so the 
roots grow downward toward the moisture containing 
the food supply in the soil. Some plants like the 
common potato have underground stems ; and a 
few plants like the peanut bear the fruit in the soil. 

Work of roots. — The roots of plants serve two main 
purposes: (i) they absorb the moisture with the 
plant food dissolved in it ; and (2) they anchor the 
plants to the soil and thus hold them in place. In 
many plants the roots serve as organs in which to store 
surplus food. These are of much importance to the 
farmer. Examples of such plants are sugar beets, 
cassava, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips. 

Kinds of roots. — Some plants have one main tap- 
root growing straight down into the soil, the smaller 
roots coming out from this main root. Beets, clover, 
and alfalfa are some of the crop plants with taproots. 
In other plants the roots branch near the surface of 
the soil, as in many grasses. 

How deep roots grow. — The depth to which roots 
grow in the soil depends upon the kind of plants and 
the condition of the soil. Buffalo grass in the West, 

43 



44 



THE PLANT AND THE SOIL 



y~& 



which grows only three or four inches high, is known 
to send its roots into the soil to a depth of seven feet. 
Alfalfa will send its taproot twenty feet or more into 
the soil unless prevented by layers of hard soil, rock, 

or water. In the des- 
ert, where the ground 
water is very far below 
the surface, and where 
the slight rainfall mois- 
tens the ground to the 
depth of only a few 
inches, the roots of 
desert plants grow only 
in this shallow layer 
of soil. 

Kinds of soil. — 
Plants differ greatly as 
to the kind of soil in 
which they grow well. 
Rye will find plant food and grow on a soil that is too 
poor for wheat. Clay soils are well adapted to wheat 
and grass ; while corn grows best in rich, dark loams. 





Corn Root at Left 
planted in deep- 
plowed Soil. Plant 
at Right planted 
in Ordinary-plowed 
Soil 



QUESTIONS 

i. What are the most important functions of roots ? 

2. What plants are called root crops? 

3. WTiat plants have long tap roots ? 

4. What conditions determine the depth to which roots 
penetrate the ground? 



THE PLANT AND THE SOIL 45 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Lay a moistened piece of cloth or blotter upon a plate and 
place several seeds of radish or some other plant. Cover with 
another plate. In a few days look for the delicate root hairs on 
the roots of the germinating plants. All the food materials 
that plants take from the soil are absorbed by the root hairs. 

2. Place a few grains of corn on a marble slab, and cover them 
with soil to a depth of one or two inches. After two weeks of 
growth remove the plants, and wash the marble to see how the 
roots have dissolved a little of the marble by the action of 
carbon dioxide which is excreted from the roots. 

REFERENCE 

Farmers' Bulletins : 408, School exercises in plant produc- 
tion. 



LESSON X 



THE SEED BED 



Making the seed bed. — After the land has been 
plowed, the next tillage operations are carried on to 
form the seed bed, which is the prepared soil in which 
the seeds are planted. 

Much of the success of any farmer depends on his 
ability to make a seed bed suitable to the kind of crop 
he wishes to produce. Usually the first thing to do 
after plowing is to harrow the soil ; and this harrowing 
should be done at the time the plowing is done, or at 
least the same day. There are many kinds of harrows; 

all of them are imple- 
ments to scratch and 
break up the soil into 
fine particles. 

Roller and harrow. — 
If a stiff sod has been 
turned over with the 
plow, and the weather 
is dry, a heavy roller 
may be run over the land to flatten the furrow slices, 
and pack them down so that the plants turned under 
will keep moist and decay more readily. If the top 
soil is dry, a roller is often used to pack the soil 
particles closer together so that the film water from 

4 6 




Roller 



THE SEED BED 



47 



below can more readily move up into the seed bed. But 
since more soil moisture can thus reach the surface 
and then evaporate, the roller should be followed by 
the harrow to form a shallow mulch. If the weather 
has been wet and cold, and there is much moisture in 
the plowed soil, the roller will pack it down, and cause 
it to lose some of its moisture by evaporation. Some- 




Harrow 



times rolling the land helps the soil to warm up earlier 
in the spring. 

Special seed beds. — Tobacco and some other plants 
have such tiny seeds it is difficult to make a proper 
seed bed in the field, so they are started in special 
seed beds ; and the plants are afterward moved to 
the field. Tomatoes, cabbage, and celery require a 
long season in which to grow, and the seeds are first 
started in a hotbed or in a greenhouse. A hotbed 
is a seed bed having some arrangement for warming the 
soil from underneath, so the plants may be started 



48 THE SEED BED 

earlier in the spring than it would be safe to plant 
them in the open soil. 

Make a good seed bed. — Much time, labor, and 
seed are lost by planting seeds on poorly prepared 
land. The best yield of a crop depends on the most 
perfect stand of plants in the soil. If the planted seeds 
do not grow, the farmer has lost not only his seed, 
but all the time and labor spent in preparing the soil, 
and he may lose the use of the land for the whole year. 

Small seeds, such as wheat, clover, or alfalfa, usually 
grow better in a well settled and compact soil ; while 
corn, potatoes, and peanuts do better in a loose seed 
bed. 

QUESTIONS 

i . What is a seed bed ? 

2. What are the conditions that make a good seed bed ? 

3. In your locality how is the seed bed prepared for wheat? 
How is it prepared for corn ? 

4. How is a hotbed made ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Fill two tin cans with the same kind of soil. Drive several 
small holes in the bottom of one can and plant seeds to the 
same depth in each. Add water to each can until the soil 
is saturated. Leave for several days. What is the effect of 
saturated soil upon seed germination? What necessary thing 
is excluded by the free water in the saturated soil ? 

2. Put clay soil into two flower pots and plant seeds of the 
same kind. To one pot add much water and thoroughly puddle 
the clay around the seeds. Moisten the soil in the other pot 
and keep it loose and mellow. What difference in plant growth 
do you observe ? 



LESSON XI 



SEEDS 



Contents of a seed. — Most farm plants are grown 
from seeds. A seed contains a tiny plant, called the 
germ or embryo, and a supply of food to nourish the 
little plant until it can send its roots into the soil and 
gather its own food. The seed is covered with a 
tough, hard coat to protect it from injury. Notice 
the skin of a bean and the shell of a squash or acorn. 
Sometimes the outer cover of a seed is thick and very 
hard, like that of the walnut 
or hickory nut. 

Parts of a seed. — If you 
soak a bean for several hours, 
and then break the seed coat, 
you can readily see the main 
parts of the germ or embryo. 
Between the two halves of 
the bean is a little sproutlike 
body which is called the axis 
of the embryo. When the 
seed sprouts, one end of the axis grows downward and 
becomes a root, while the other end grows upward 
and develops into stem and leaves. At the end which 





Germinating Bean 



B. AND D. AG. — 4 



49 



5° 



SEEDS 




grows upward you will see a little bud made up of 
several tiny leaves. The two halves of the bean are 
the first leaves of the embryo and are so large because 
the reserve food supply is stored in them. These 
seed leaves are called cotyledons. 

A grain of corn or wheat has one small cotyledon, 
and the food supply is not stored within the germ 

itself, but lies outside. You 
can easily remove the small 
germ of a grain of corn from 
the harder part of the seed 
which is the reserve food 
supply. 

Good seeds. — Good crops 
can be grown only from good 
seeds. As a rule, plump, 
heavy grains are good seed. 
The seeds of our crops keep 
their vitality for only a very few years, most of them 
only two years ; and it is very important that the seed 
is not too old. Seeds keep best in a dry, airy, cool 
place. 

Germination. — When seeds are placed in the ground, 
the warmth, moisture, and air of the soil cause them to 
germinate. At first, the plant lives upon the food 
supply stored in the seed, but, after a short time, the 
roots take in food material from the soil. 

How to plant seeds. — The depth to which seeds 
should be planted depends on the kind and size of the 




Seed Tester 



SEEDS 51 

seed and the conditions of the soil. It is a general 
rule to plant seeds only as deep as is necessary to 
keep them in moist soil. Very tiny seeds are not 
covered with soil, but merely pressed into the soil 
and kept moist by frequent rains. Clover is usually 
sown by scattering the seed over the surface of the 
ground. 

Quality of seeds. — In raising plants for seeds, we 
wish to make each plant produce as many perfect seeds 
as possible. Large beans produce only a few seeds on 
a plant, while the tobacco plant or a poppy may pro- 
duce thousands of tiny seeds. In many farm crops 
each plant usually produces several hundred seeds. 
The number and quality of seeds from each plant de- 
pend largely on the fertility and depth of the soil. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are the parts of a seed ? 

2. How does a grain of corn differ from a bean ? 

3. Of what use to the germinating plant is the food stored in 
the seed ? 

4. What three conditions are necessary to germination ? 

5. What things determine the depth to which seeds are 
planted ? 

REFERENCE 

Farmers' Bulletins : 428, Testing farm seeds in the home and 
in the rural school. 



LESSON XII 

GROWING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS, SCIONS, 

AND BUDS 

Can you name several plants which are not usually 
grown from seeds ? What crop is obtained by planting 
underground stems ? Can you name one or more house 
plants which are started by planting in the soil a leaf 
or branch from a parent plant? Do you know a tree 




Rooted Cuttings 



which can be grown by planting twigs in the moist 
earth ? 

Cuttings. — With many crops it is far better to 
use cuttings instead of seeds to obtain the new plants. 
A cutting may be a leaf, or a piece of root or stem. 
If a leaf of a begonia or rubber plant is placed in moist 

52 



GROWING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS, ETC. 53 




1 



soil, it will develop roots and grow into a new plant. 
The crops of sugar cane are grown by planting the 
upper sections of the stem. The potato crop is grown 
by planting the tubers, which are underground stems. 
Hyacinths and tulips are also started from underground 
stems. Geraniums are grown by planting the green 
shoots or branches. 
In growing some 
plants the cuttings 
are made from 
twigs or small 
branches of mature 
or ripened wood. 
In starting willows 
and cotton woods, 
the twigs of the 
previous summer's 
growth are used. 
Grapes and cur- 
rants are also reproduced by cuttings of mature wood. 
The ends of black raspberry branches are bent down 
to the ground and covered with soil. Roots then form 
from the covered branches, and these rooted branches 
are cut and become new plants. Strawberries produce 
runners which take root at many places. These rooted 
parts become separate plants. 

There are many kinds of plants which send up new 
plants from the roots. If the plow cuts the roots of 
the black or yellow locust, the severed roots will send 



m 



Steps in Tongue Grafting 

a, the two branches to be joined; b, a tongue cut in 
each; c, how fitted together; d, method of wrapping 



54 GROWING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS, ETC. 




up a number of young trees. The blackberry and 
the red raspberry are also examples of plants which 
reproduce themselves by root cuttings. 

Grafting is an- 
other method of 
growing plants. A 
branch of mature 
or ripened wood 
with one or more 
buds attached, 
called a scion, may 
be cut from one 
tree and united 
with the root or 
branch of another 
tree called the 
stock. Many of 
our fruit trees are 
started in this 
manner. For ex- 
ample, in growing 
apple trees the 
scions from a tree 
bearing desirable 
fruit are grafted 
to the stocks of 
apple seedlings 
which have grown 
from apple seeds. 




- 



M 



e S g 

Steps in Budding 

a, twig having suitable buds to use; b, method of cutting 
off the bud; c, how the bark is cut ; d, how the bark 
is opened; e, inserting the bud; /, the bud in place; 
g, the bud properly wrapped 



GROWING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS, ETC. 55 

If the trees from the seeds were allowed to grow, the 
apples from such trees would be of poor quality and 
very different from the apples in which the seeds were 
produced. But by grafting to the seedling trees a 
scion from the tree we wish to propagate, we are sure 
to get trees which will bear the fruit we desire. 

Budding is another form of grafting. A bud may 
be cut out of a plant and grafted on the stem of another 
plant, and from this bud will come branches which 
will bear fruit of the same kind as that of the plant 
from which the bud was taken. Peach and cherry 
trees are grown in this way. Some nurseries also start 
apple trees by budding. 

By grafting scions or buds from several trees on the 
branches of one tree, we can get several varieties of 
fruit from the single tree. If a fruit tree bears an un- 
desirable variety of fruit, we can change the fruit by 
grafting on it scions or buds from trees of desirable 
varieties. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What is a cutting? What plants are propagated by cut- 
tings ? 

2. Why do we not raise apples from seedling trees? 

3. What is a scion ? Explain the method of grafting a scion 
to another plant. 

4. Explain the method of budding. 

5. What trees are propagated by grafting or budding? 



56 GROWING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS, ETC. 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Cut off the growing tip of a stem or branch of a geranium. 
Plant the cutting in moist earth, and after several days note 
the result. 

2 . Ask a fruit grower to show you how to graft a scion of one 
tree to the stock of another. Learn also to remove a bud and 
attach it to the branch of another tree. 

3. Bend a long, slender branch of a black raspberry, grapevine, 
or rosebush to the ground and cover a section of it with four 
inches of soil. Leave above ground several inches of the tip 
of the branch. After the buried section takes root, the new 
plant may be severed from the old plant. 



LESSON XIII 



TRANSPLANTING 



Planting indoors. Doubtless you have seen your 
father or mother plant seeds in a box of earth, keep 
it in a warm place, and then when the plants were two 
or three inches high, remove them to the garden. 
The removal of plants from their place of early growth 
to a new soil is transplanting. 

Hotbeds. - Farm plants which require a longer 
season than occurs in the north are raised by planting 
the seeds indoors or in hotbeds ; and then setting them 
out when the danger of frost is over. It is desirable 
to have vegetables ready for market as early as possible, 
and so these plants are started indoors long before 
the weather outside is favorable to growth. When 
favorable growing 
conditions exist, 
the plants are then 
transplanted in the 
garden or field. 
Plants regularly 
raised in this way are tomatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, 
peppers, egg plants, and celery. The young plants 
are grown two or three months indoors before they are 
removed to the open. Sometimes the young plants are 

57 




Hotbed 



58 



TRANSPLANTING 



lifted when they get the second pair of leaves and 
planted in hotbeds, and from there they may be trans- 
planted in cold frames, where they are allowed more cold 
air and light to harden them before they are transplanted 
in the field. Such plants may be transplanted two or 
three times. Celery is often transplanted twice. 

Advantages. — 
By growing young 
plants in green- 
houses and hotbeds 
we can secure the 
most favorable con- 
ditions of soil, heat, 
moisture, and light. 
The soil and air 
can be artificially 
warmed ; by screens 
the proper amount 
of light can be ob- 
tained ; and the 
plants can be wa- 
tered as often as necessary. To protect the young 
plants against disease, special chemical treatment can 
be given to the soil and the plants themselves to pre- 
vent the growth of dangerous bacteria. Loss by in- 
sects and other animals can be controlled or entirely 
prevented by these methods of early cultivation. 

Nurseries. — In the case of tree seedlings a great 
saving of ground can be secured by having the young 




Cold Frames 



TRANSPLANTING 59 

trees grow for one, two, or three years in closely planted 
beds; and then transplanting them to the places 
where they are to grow. In the nurseries a few acres 
of seedling beds will grow trees enough to plant hundreds 
of acres ; and while the young trees are in the nursery 
beds, the land to be planted in trees can be used for 
other crops. 

Methods. — Transplanting is nearly always done by 
hand. But where the rows are far enough apart, and 
the plants are not to be placed close together in the 
rows, a transplanting machine may be used. 

Plants set by hand are usually placed in holes made 
by a dibble, which is simply a round stick or flat piece 
of iron, used in one hand, while the plants are placed 
with the other hand. Then the soil is pressed against 
the roots with the dibble. 

In transplanting it is always necessary to keep 
the roots moist and to protect them from injury. 
Whenever possible, it is best to have a ball of soil 
surrounding the roots. After transplanting, care must 
be taken to prevent much loss of moisture by transpira- 
tion, until the plant can get water from the soil by its 
root system. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What plants are usually started in hotbeds or in houses 
and then transplanted to the garden or field ? 

2 . What results are gained by transplanting ? 

3 . How does a cold frame differ from a hotbed ? 



60 TRANSPLANTING 

4. Describe some method of transplanting you have seen. 

5 . What precautions should be observed in transplanting ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. In a small box of earth, plant tomato seeds, and keep it in a 
warm room. At the same time make a number of small paper 
boxes, fill them with soil, and plant two or three tomato seeds 
in each. After the plants come up in the paper boxes, remove 
all but one from each box. At the proper time, plant the paper 
boxes in the ground without disturbing the tomato plant in 
each. Lift from the wooden box an equal number of tomato 
plants and transplant them in the usual way. Watch the 
results of each method of planting. 

2. A simple hotbed is easily constructed by digging a hole in 
the ground two feet deep and fitting a frame of boards around it 
that will support a window sash. Fresh manure from grain-fed 
horses should be placed in a pile and water sprinkled over it 
until it is sufficiently moist. Then it should be forked over 
once or twice each day for a week or ten days to keep the manure 
from burning, and to set up active fermentation. Place this 
in the bed, pounding it down tight to a depth of twelve or 
fifteen inches. Cover with the sash and leave two or three 
days, testing the temperature with a thermometer, when the 
heat has gone down to 100 degrees, cover with four to six inches 
of good soil. In a day or two the heat will be reduced to 70 de- 
grees or 80 degrees, and then the seeds may be planted. Venti- 
late carefully by opening the sash during the warm part of the 
day, and water to keep the soil moist. The sash should slope to 
the south ; and if the sun is too bright, it may be shaded with 
a cloth or by whitewashing the glass. 




LESSON XIV 
SUNLIGHT AND PLANT GROWTH 

Root hairs. — After the seed has sprouted and the 
roots have become attached to the soil, the new plant 
must gather its own food materials and change them 
into its own substance. Plants can take in only such 
mineral matter as is dissolved in the soil water. Near 
the ends of the small roots 
are numerous hairlike cells 
called root hairs. These 
root hairs absorb the film 
moisture held around the 

soil particles. This moisture, containing very small 
amounts of the minerals of which the soil is composed, 
becomes the sap which passes through the root and 
stem to the leaves. 

Sunlight. - - Through the action of sunlight upon the 
green leaves, the materials from the soil and air are built 
into organic substances which finally become the 
tissues of the plant. Water and carbon are combined 
together in the leaves to form sugar. The carbon 
comes from the carbon dioxide which the plants take 
from the air. By other processes the sugar is combined 
with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, and 

61 



62 



SUNLIGHT AND PLANT GROWTH 



other elements taken from the soil, and is finally con- 
verted into the actual substances of which plants are 
composed. 

Photosynthesis. This process of making sugar 
which takes place in the leaves during sunlight is called 
photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide, which is taken from 
the air into the leaves, is a gas composed of carbon and 
oxygen; and since only the carbon is used in the 




Common Form of Mold (magnified) 



process of photosynthesis, the oxygen is liberated and 
expelled into the air. This process of taking in carbon 
dioxide and throwing off the oxygen must not be con- 
fused with respiration of plants. Respiration goes on 
in plants as it does in animals. Both plants and ani- 
mals in breathing take in oxygen from the air and 
expel carbon dioxide. But during the life of a plant 
more oxygen is given off to the air by photosynthesis 
than is taken from the air by respiration. 



SUNLIGHT AND PLANT GROWTH 63 

Growth without sunlight. - Some plants, like bac- 
teria, molds, and mushrooms, do not have green matter ; 
and these plants must live on ready-made food. Bac- 
teria live in the bodies of plants and animals, and their 
food lies all about them ready to be absorbed. Molds 
live on plant and animal substances, such as bread, 
jelly, or decaying flesh. The mushrooms can grow 
only in soil rich in decaying plant and animal matter. 
Only green plants, which use the sunlight, can live 
on the mineral matter of the soil and the carbon taken 
from the carbon dioxide of the air. 

The importance of sunlight is seen in the fact that 
the dried tissues of plants, like corn, wheat, or trees, are 
mostly carbon which came entirely from the air and 
was made part of the plant by the action of sunlight 
upon the green leaves. Only the ash of a burned 
plant is the material which came from the mineral 
matter of the soil. 

Thus, in addition to soil, water, and air, the crops must 
have sunlight in order to grow and yield harvests for 
man. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What substance is manufactured in the green parts of a 
plant under the influence of sunlight ? 

2. What is the name of this building-up process ? How does 
this process differ from respiration of plants ? 

3. What kinds of plants grow without sunlight ? How do 
the food materials of such plants differ from those of green 
plants ? 



LESSON XV 
PLANTS GROWN ON THE FARM 

Useful plants. — There are many kinds of plants 
useful to man. Most of the important crop plants 
are grown for food. Others are grown for the fibers 
which they yield. Trees are raised mainly for fuel 
and lumber. Some plants are grown for drugs and 
others for their beauty. 

Grasses. — Most of the general farm crop plants 
belong to the grass family. The plants of this family, 
like wheat and oats, whose seeds are used for food, 
are called cereals. The seeds or grain of these plants are 
also called cereals. All of the cereals are grasses except 
buckwheat, which belongs to another family of flower- 
ing plants ; but buckwheat is called a cereal because 
its seeds are used in making flour. Many of the 
grasses with fine leaves and stems are used for hay and 
pasture crops. The largest grasses used as crops in 
America are corn, sugar cane, and sorghum. The 
largest grass in the world is the bamboo, which is 
used for many purposes. Many important plants 
belong to the legume or pea family. Clover, alfalfa, 
peas, and beans are well-known legumes. 

Food plants. — Corn, wheat, rice, barley, rye, oats, 
and buckwheat are crops whose seeds or grains are 

6 4 



PLANTS GROWN ON THE FARM 



65 



used as food for men and animals. The hay and pasture 
grasses are grown to supply animals with food. Some 
food plants are raised for their roots, like sweet pota- 
toes, beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, and turnips. 
The common potato and the Jerusalem artichoke, al- 




ROOTS USED AS FOOD 
i, carrot; 2, turnip; 3, radish; 4, sweet potato; 5, rutabaga; 6, mangel-wurzel." 

though underground stems, are classed as root crops. 
We eat the leaves of lettuce, cabbage, celery, and spinach, 
the leaf stalks of rhubarb and chard, and the stems of 
asparagus. Sugar cane is grown for the sugar which is 
obtained from the juice of the stem. Tea is the dried 
leaves of a shrub grown in distant lands, while coffee 

B. AND D. AG. — 5 



66 



PLANTS GROWN ON THE FARM 



is the berry of a pulpy fruit which grows on shrubs in 
tropical regions. Many plants are raised for their fruit, 
like berries, apples, peaches, rigs, oranges, and dates. 

Fiber plants. - The most important fiber plant in 
the world is cotton ; and the United States is the great- 
est cotton-growing country. Other fiber plants are 
flax and the hemps. While the mulberry tree does not 
yield fibers, yet its leaves are the food of the silk- 




Cabbage 



Lettuce 
Leaves used as Food 



Spinach 



worms that spin the silk fibers which are woven into 
silk cloth. 

Useful trees. — Trees yield wood which is used for 
fuel and lumber. Some also furnish nuts which are 
used for food. From the pine trees we get turpentine 
and tar ; and from the rubber tree is obtained a gummy 
sap which is manufactured into rubber. Trees are 
also grown to protect crops and buildings against 
winds and to prevent erosion by running water. 
Many kinds of trees are planted for their beauty. 

Drugs. — Another group of plants furnishes drugs. 
Most of these drugs are used as medicines. A few, 



PLANTS GROWN ON THE FARM 



67 



like tobacco and opium, are used by a large number of 
people, not as foods or medicines, but to satisfy a desire 
for these products. 




Celery 

Flowers and ornamental shrubs are grown for 
their beauty. On many farms there could well be 
given more attention to the growing of such plants in 
order to increase the attractiveness of the home sur- 
roundings, and thus increase the happiness of the people 
living on the farm. 

Rotation of crops. — A farmer usually raises more 
than one kind of crop. To get the most out of the soil 



68 PLANTS GROWN ON THE FARM 

and keep up its fertility, the general farmer practices 
rotation of crops. Instead of raising the same crop on 
the same land each year, he follows one crop with a 
crop of another kind. This is called rotation of crops. 
One crop may improve the soil for another kind 
of crop. The legume plants often enrich the soil by 
adding nitrogen which is taken from the air by the 
bacteria which form nodules or tubercles on the roots 
of these plants. A rotation of crops is usually planned 
to have the land in clover, alfalfa, or some other 
legume crop for one or more years ; then a cultivated 
crop like corn or potatoes is grown for one or two 
years ; and then a grain crop for one or two years, 
after which the land is again seeded to another legume 
crop. Each crop is called a course, so if three crops 
are used, the plan is a three-course rotation. If a 
farmer plows under a clover sod for corn, then follows 
with wheat, and again with clover, he is using a three- 
course rotation. 

QUESTIONS 

i . What crops are raised to produce food for man ? 

2. Make a list of food products for man that are grown in 
your vicinity. In what form do they appear as food ? 

3. What are the most important fiber plants of the world ? 
What is the most important fiber crop of the United States ? 

4. What are the most useful timber trees ? 

5. What crops are raised mainly to furnish food for animals ? 

6. What are cereal crops ? 



LESSON XVI 



POWER ON THE FARM 



Sources of power. - In olden days most of the 
work on the farm was done by man power. The 
muscles of men and women were used to hoe the 




Method of harvesting in the Olden Days 

ground, cut the grain and hay, and carry the harvests 
to the shed or barn. Although our modern methods 
of farming require more power than ever before, yet 
the farmer is using less of his own muscular power. 

69 



70 POWER ON THE FARM 

Draft animals, engines, wind, and water do the work 
for him. 

Draft animals. — The most common draft animals 
are horses and mules. Oxen are used in some parts of 
our country and in some other countries. Other draft 
animals used in different parts of the world are ele- 
phants, buffaloes, reindeer, camels, and dogs. 

The horse and the mule are raised for power purposes 
alone ; and in many of our states the value of horses 
and mules is much greater than that of cattle and 
hogs. If you think of the work of raising our draft 
animals and the amount of land and time that is given to 
crops which are grown for their food, you will realize 
the large cost of power upon the farm. 

Engines. - Threshing and grinding machinery is 
usually run by engines that use steam, gasoline, or 
kerosene. If these engines travel by their own power, 
they are called traction engines or tractors. Often 
the land of large farms is plowed by using these traction 
engines to pull the plows. Several furrows are plowed 
at a time by the use of gang plows in which there 
are several moldboard plows or disks fastened together. 
With one team of horses and a single plow, a man can 
plow only an acre or two in a day. If he uses four 
horses and a two-gang plow, one man can break up 
from two to six acres per day. But with large plows 
and engines he can plow twenty to forty acres of land 
in one day. As a man's time is worth more than the 
time of a horse or a machine, there is economy in using 



POWER ON THE FARM 



7i 



more power to do the work in the shortest possible 
length of time. 

Small gas engines are becoming very important on 
farms to furnish power for many things that were 
formerly done by hand. Windmills are often used as 




Traction Engine at work on a Farm 



power to drive pumps and other small machinery. 
By placing the wind wheels on top of high towers, a 
stronger wind can be used to turn them than if they 
were placed near the ground. 

Water power. — It is very likely that in the future 
water power will be used to do much of the farm work. 
By the use of dynamos the power of the falling water 



72 POWER ON THE FARM 

of streams can be turned into electric energy, which 
by wires can be carried to the electric motors on the 
farms. 

QUESTIONS 

i . In ancient times what was the main source of power used 
in farming ? 

2. What are draft animals? Name several draft animals. 

3. What animals are raised in this country for power? 

4. What farming operations require a large amount of power? 

5. What are some of the advantages of using engines for 
power on the farm ? 

6. For what purposes are windmills used? 

7. How may streams be used to furnish power for farms? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 277, Use of alcohol and gasoline in farm 
engines ; 394, Use of windmills in irrigation in semiarid West. 



LESSON XVII 
HARVESTING CROPS 

The time of harvest depends mainly on the kind of 
crop and the use made of it. If corn is grown for the 
mature grain, the harvesting takes place in the fall 
after it is thoroughly ripe. If it is grown to be used 
as a vegetable, it is gathered while the grains are still 
soft and milky. Oats grown for the grain are cut after 
the seeds are nearly mature, while if grown for hay, they 
are cut while the stems and leaves are green and before 
the seeds have developed much. Pears are much 
better if picked green and allowed to ripen in storage, 
and winter apples will ripen after they have been 
picked. Some fruits, however, cannot be picked while 
green. If grapes are picked while they are green 
and sour, they will never get sweet. 

Hay and grain. — In the greater part of our country 
the hay and grain harvests come close together, and 
this season is usually the busiest time of the year. 
Most of the grain crops must be harvested just before 
the seeds are fully ripe. If the harvest is delayed too 
long, the grains of wheat, oats, and barley will drop 
from the heads to the ground. The kernels of corn 
are tightly fastened to the cob and protected by the 

73 



74 



HARVESTING CROPS 




Pi 



HARVESTING CROPS 75 

husk, and, for this reason, corn may be left in the field 
for a long time after it ripens in the fall. 

Machinery. — There has been a wonderful change 
in the possibilities of farming by the invention of har- 




Scythe and Cradle 



vesting machinery. When the farmer had to gather 
his wheat by hand with a sickle or a cradle, he could 
raise only a few acres, for if he raised more, a large part 
of the crop would become over-ripe, before it could be 



7 6 



HARVESTING CROPS 



harvested, and the heads would shatter and allow 
the grain to fall to the ground. Now, with the har- 
vester or self-binder a very large crop can be harvested 
in three or four days. 

The stems and leaves are the most valuable parts 
of plants grown for hay ; and if a crop is allowed to go 



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to seed, the leaves become too dry and the stems too 
hard and woody to make good hay. Most hay grasses 
and clovers are therefore harvested when they come 
into bloom. Alfalfa has the most nutrition in the 
stems and leaves when the buds are first formed, and 
before they get into full bloom. Thus hay making 
must be done in the few days when the crop is at the 
proper stage for making good forage ; and the use of 



HARVESTING CROPS 77 

machinery for harvesting hay has greatly increased the 
acreage of hay crops. 

Hay is cut with a mowing machine that can mow 
from five to ten acres in a day. When the hay is 
partly dry, it is raked into windrows in which the drying 
and curing continues. In wet countries where the hay 
does not readily dry out, before raking it is turned and 
stirred with a machine called a hay tedder. From 
the windrows the hay is pitched upon wagons with large 
hayracks and taken to the barn or stack. On some 
farms the loading and unloading are done by machinery. 
If the hay is stacked in the field, it is moved to the 
stack by means of sleds or drags. Very often, the hay 
in the windrows is gathered into small piles or hay- 
cocks and allowed to cure for several days before storing 
it in a stack or barn. In the haymow or stack the hay 
goes through a final curing process that makes it crisp, 
palatable, and nutritious. Good, well-cured hay should 
have all the leaves on it, should be light in color, free 
from dust and mold, and have a clean, sweet smell. 



QUESTIONS 

1. Why is the harvest season usually the busiest time of the 
year? 

2. What good results have come from the use of harvesting 
machinery ? 

3. What was the old method of harvesting wheat ? 

4. How is hay harvested ? 

5. What qualities should hay possess? 



78 HARVESTING CROPS 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Write a composition on the development of harvesting 
machinery from the reaping hook to the self-binder, and illus- 
trate with pictures that you have collected of harvesting 
machinery. 

2. Explain how wheat or oats is thrashed. 

REFERENCES 

Selected Readings : Scythe Song, — Andrew Lang ; The Soli- 
tary Reaper, — William Wordsworth. 



LESSON XVIII 
FORAGE CROPS 

Three kinds of crops. — The crops used as food for 
animals are classed into (i) grain crops, (2) forage 
crops, and (3) root crops. By some people the root 
crops are called forage. 

Forage includes hay, pasture grass, silage, and fodder. 
In addition to these common kinds of forage, many 
other plants serve as forage crops. The forage plants 
of greatest importance are those used for hay, — 
timothy, clover, alfalfa, and millet. In the United 
States the two most important hay crops are timothy 
and clover. Sometimes the plants which are usually 
grown for grain are cut while green, and are harvested 
and fed like hay. 

Silage. — If forage plants are placed while green in 
nearly air-tight pits or vats, they will keep fresh for a 
long time and can be fed as green forage to the farm 
animals. Forage thus kept is called silage, and the 
buildings in which it is stored are called silos. Corn 
is the chief silage crop, but clover, sorghum, millet, 
peas, and beans are sometimes used for silage. At 
beet-sugar factories, the beet pulp from which the 
sugar has been extracted is stored in silos and fed to 

79 



8o 



FORAGE CROPS 



cattle. Corn intended for silage is cut while green, and 
the stalks, leaves, and ears are packed in the silo. In 
some of the Northern states where the growing season 

is too short for 
the corn to ripen 
well, much of it 
is harvested while 
green for silage. 
Silage cannot be 
shipped from the 
farm and fed to 
animals in other 
sections, but must 
be fed on the farm 
where it is stored. 
Fodder. — The 
dried stalks and 
leaves of corn and 
sorghum are called 
fodder. After the 
grain is thrashed 
from wheat, oats, 
and other small 
grain crops, the straw is used as forage. Oats straw is 
a forage of relatively high value. Coarse forage, such 
as fodder and straw, is spoken of as roughage or stover. 
Grazing. — Farm animals secure a large part of their 
forage foods by grazing. There are many pasture 
grasses, and nearly all of the hay grasses also serve 




A Silo 



FORAGE CROPS 



81 



for grazing purposes. Kentucky blue grass is the most 
important pasture grass. Several plants belonging 
to the mustard family, such as cabbage and dwarf rape, 
are used as pasturage crops, being used for feeding 
hogs and sheep. In the Western grazing states very 




Cattle Grazing 



much of the forage comes from wild grasses. In the 
Southwest, the cactus is used to some extent as a forage 
for cattle ; but the spines must be burned off before 
the animals can eat this plant. Mr. Burbank has 
introduced some kinds of cactus that have no spines, 
and these are relished by stock. 

Forage crops are important farm products in all 



B. AND D. AG. 



82 FORAGE CROPS 

sections of the country, but in certain sections, hay and 
pasture are the leading crops. Many of the forage 
plants serve a double purpose, that of yielding valuable 
food crops and increasing the fertility of the soil. 



QUESTIONS 

i . What is a forage crop ? . 

2. What crops are used for forage in this country ? In your 
community ? 

3. What is silage? What crop is most generally used for 
silage ? 

4. What are some of the leading pasture plants ? 

5. What straw has high value as a forage ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Write a good description of a silo. 

2. Make a collection of forage grasses. Several stems of each, 
with the leaves and flowers, should be tied together and the 
bunch neatly labeled. 

3. Explain the process of cutting corn ; baling straw. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 66, Meadows and pastures; 102, 
Southern forage plants; 271, Forage crop practices in western 
Oregon and western Washington ; 300, Some important grasses 
and forage plants for Gulf Coast region ; 312, Successful South- 
ern hay farm; 362, Conditions affecting value of market hay; 
402, Canada blue grass, its culture and uses; 483, The thorn- 
less prickly pears ; 508, Market hay ; 509, Forage crops for the 
cotton regions. 



LESSON XIX 



TIMOTHY AND CLOVER 



Timothy. - — In value and acreage, timothy is the 
leading hay crop of the United States. It is the most 
extensively used hay for feeding horses, and is in great 
demand by teamsters and livery- 
men. For this reason, a large 
part of the timothy crop is shipped 
from the farms to the cities. 

Timothy is a grass with fine 
leaves, slender stems, and long 
heads filled with many small 
seeds. It grows straight, is eas- 
ily cut, dries readily, and is free 
from dust. The seed is usually 
sown in the fall, and yields a 
crop the following summer. In 
hilly sections of the country 
where hay is the chief crop, 
many fields are kept in timo- 
thy ' for several years, the fer- 
tility of the soil being kept up by adding fertilizers. 

Timothy and clover. - - While the acreage of timothy 
is far greater than for any other single hay crop, yet 
the acreage of timothy and clover mixed is larger. This 

83 




Timothy 



84 



TIMOTHY AND CLOVER 



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White Clover 

serve as pasture. The 
mixed hay crop of the 
following summer will 
be largely clover, but 
the second hay crop 
will be mostly timothy. 
Importance of clo- 
vers. — The clovers are 
of special importance 
because they not only 
furnish a food of great 
fattening value, but 
enrich the soil by tak- 



grass and legume to- 
gether form a hay of 
great value for general 
feeding purposes. The 
timothy may be sown 
in the fall and the 
clover added to it in 
the spring ; or both, 
in the spring, may be 
sown in wheat or oats. 
After the nurse crop 
of wheat or oats is 
harvested, the young 
clover and timothy 







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Red Clover 



TIMOTHY AND CLOVER 85 

ing in nitrogen from the air in the soil. Because of 
the fertilizing value of clover, it is the forage crop 
which is most often used in rotation plans. 

Kinds of clover. - A true clover has each leaf made 
up of three leaflets, and the flowers are grouped to- 
gether in bunches or heads. There are four kinds of 
clover grown by farmers. These are red, crimson, 
white, and alsike clovers. The red, crimson, and alsike 
clovers are used for hay and pasture. Crimson clover is 
also frequently used as a cover crop for orchards. The 
white clover is used for pastures and lawns. Red 
clover is by far the most important of the clovers. A 
number of legumes, as sweet clover, Florida clover, 
beggarweed, and Japan clover are called clovers, 
but they are not true clovers. 

The crimson clover is an annual plant, therefore the 
seed must be sown every year. Red clover is a biennial 
plant ; that is, it lives for two years ; but under favorable 
conditions it may live longer. Some of the clovers 
are perennial, living several years. 

Clover grows best on good, well-tilled, and sweet 
soil. Sometimes acids sour the soil ; and clover will 
not grow until lime has been added to destroy the acid 
and thus sweeten the soil. 

QUESTIONS 

1 . What is the leading hay crop of the United States ? 

2. What qualities of timothy make it a good hay? 

3. Why is clover of such great importance to the farmer ? 



86 TIMOTHY AND CLOVER 

4. What are the classes of true clovers ? 

5. What is a rather common cause for repeated failures to 
get a stand of clover on some fields ? What is the remedy ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Obtain specimens of timothy and the most common kinds of 
clover. Study the roots, stem, leaves, flowers, and seed of 
each plant. In digging, get all the root system, if possible. 

2. Look for nodules on the roots of these plants.- Can you 
find any on the roots of timothy ? 

3. Explain the process and machinery used in mowing and 
stacking hay. 

REFERENCES 

Bulletins on clover and timothy published by the Agricultural 
College and Experiment Station in your state. Farmers' 
Bulletins: 123, Red clover seed, information for purchasers; 
260, Seed of red clover and its impurities; 323, Clover farming 
on sandy jack-pine lands of the North; 455, Red clover; 485, 
Sweet clover; 502, Timothy production on irrigated land in 
the Northwestern states. 



LESSON XX 
ALFALFA 

Alfalfa is a legume. — The flowers grow in little 
spikelets or clusters from the axils of the leaves on the 
upper part of the stem. The taproot of alfalfa grows 
deep into the soil and lives many years. It is said that 
fields of alfalfa in Spain have lived one hundred and 
eighty years from one planting. In western America 
there are fields forty or fifty years old. On some soils 
alfalfa may live only a few seasons. 

The word alfalfa comes from an Arabic word which 
means the best fodder. The plant is a native of Asia 
and was brought to Greece and Italy many centuries 
ago. In some places, alfalfa is called lucerne, which 
is the name of a valley in Italy, from which place it was 
taken to all parts of Europe. 

Effect on the soil. — Alfalfa is now grown in all parts 
of the United States and in Canada. It is one of 
the most useful, most profitable, and most highly 
prized crops. It is not only a valuable hay and pasture 
crop, but also an improver of the soil in which it grows. 
The soil in which alfalfa has grown for a few years is 
so rich that it will produce large yields of other crops. 

Large crops. — Alfalfa gives the largest yields of any 
hay plant. It furnishes two crops a year in the northern 

87 



88 



ALFALFA 



part of the country where the growing season is short, 
and as many as eight crops a year where the climate 

enables it to grow almost the 
whole year. It yields from 
three to eight tons per acre of 
hay in a year. 

Bacteria needed. — This crop 
prefers deep, sweet soils. It is 
especially suited to arid regions, 
where it is easily raised by irri- 
gation. Sometimes the bac- 
teria which live on the roots 
and gather nitrogen from the 
air are not present ; and if this 
is the case, the soil should be in- 
oculated with the nitrogen-fix- 
ing bacteria. This is usually 
done by taking soil from an 
alfalfa field where the bacteria 
are present, and scattering it 
over the ground to be inocu- 
lated. 

Seeding. — Alfalfa is grown 
from seeds. Most of the seed 
comes from dry regions where 
alfalfa growing is an important branch of farming. The 
seeds are small, so there should be a well-prepared seed 
bed that is well pulverized, free from weeds, and com- 
pact. The seeds may be sown broadcast, but better 




Alfalfa Plants 



ALFALFA 



89 



results are obtained when they are planted with an 
alfalfa drill that scatters the seeds evenly in rows seven 
or eight inches apart. If a seed crop is to be grown, the 
seeds should be spread far apart, using two or three 
pounds of seed per acre. The best hay is from fields 
with a thick stand of plants, and for a hay crop from ten 





jg^m jdj|^ ..,„<_...,::■*•* ■MM 






it 







Cutting Alfalfa 

to twenty-five pounds of seed per acre are sown. 
Alfalfa is sown in the spring or summer, and where 
conditions are favorable, the seed may be sown with a 
grain crop. 

Harvesting. — The young alfalfa plants should not 
be cut too soon after they begin growing, or before they 
begin to branch by throwing out new stems from the 
crowns of the roots. When raised for hay, alfalfa is 



9 o ALFALFA 

cut with mowing machines. Alfalfa for seed is har- 
vested with a reaper or binder or with a mowing machine 
that has an attachment for bunching the crop. 

Value. - Alfalfa is one of the best foods in the world 
for stock. It is used mostly for hay, but it makes 
excellent pasture for horses, sheep, swine, and poultry. 
It is one of the best soiling plants. In many localities 
the hay is ground into meal, which can be fed without 
waste. The young plants are sometimes boiled and 
eaten as greens. Bees make fine honey from the 
blossoms of alfalfa. 

QUESTION 

i . Why is alfalfa such an important forage crop ? 

2. What kind of soil is best for this crop ? 

3. How is alfalfa sown and harvested ? 

4. In what sections of the country is alfalfa the leading hay 
crop? 

5. What is the common cause of failure to get a good stand of 
alfalfa ? What is the remedy ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISE 

i. Dig up an alfalfa plant, getting as much of the roots as pos- 
sible, and study the parts of the plant. Are there nodules on 
the roots ? How does alfalfa differ from clover ? 

REFERENCES 

Bulletins on alfalfa published by the Agricultural College 
and Experiment Station in your state. Farmers' Bulletins : 
194, Alfalfa seed; 339, Alfalfa ; 373, Irrigation of alfalfa; 495, 
Alfalfa seed production. 



LESSON XXI 
MILLET, SORGHUM, AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS 

The millets are cereal grasses whose seeds are exten- 
sively used as human food in parts of Asia. In this 
country the millets are grown mainly for hay. The 
crushed seeds are used to some extent as food for 
stock. The three millets most generally grown in 
the United States are the common millet, Hungarian 
millet, and German millet. These grasses make quick 
growth and come to maturity in a shorter time than 
most grasses, and for this reason they are called short 
season crops. The seed is usually sown in the spring, 
but may be sown in midsummer. 

The sorghums are grasses which are grown in this 
country mainly for forage, while in parts of Africa and 
Asia the seeds form an important food for man. The 
principal kinds of sorghum are sweet sorghum, Kafir 
corn, milo maize, Jerusalem corn, and broom corn. 
The sweet sorghum is grown for the molasses, which is 
made from the sweet juice of the stem. The sweet 
sorghum is also used for fodder and silage. Broom 
corn is grown for the tassels from which brooms are 
made. The Kafir corn, milo maize, and Jerusalem 
corn are tropical or subtropical plants, and are able 

91 



Q2 MILLET, SORGHUM, AND FORAGE CROPS 




A Field of Millet 



MILLET, SORGHUM, AND FORAGE CROPS 93 

to live in hot, dry climates. These plants are grown 
for fodder and also for the seed which is being used as 
food for stock. 

Sorghum may be sown broadcast and the crop 
harvested the same as hay ; or it may be planted in 




Nodules on Alfalfa Roots and Red Clover Roots 



drill rows or hills and cultivated and harvested the 
same as corn. 

Root nodules. — Like clover and alfalfa, peas, beans, 
vetches, and lentils are legumes, and have nodules on 
their roots which are produced by the nitrogen-gather- 
ing bacteria. The value of these plants in enriching 



94 MILLET, SORGHUM, AND FORAGE CROPS 




Pea Plant 



crop may be used 
as hay or silage. 

The cowpeas are 
a kind of bean 
widely grown in the 
Southern states. 
They make a valu- 
able hay crop and 
also improve the 
soil for other crops. 
Soy beans are 
grown to improve 
the soil and also 
for hay or silage. 



the ground with ni- 
trogen has led to their 
use as forage crops 
in regular rotation 
courses. 

Peas require a cool 
climate and moist soil 
in order to yield the 
best crops. The pea 
vines are cut with 
mowing machines, or 
with reapers that pile 
them in bunches. The 



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Bean Plants 



MILLET, SORGHUM, AND FORAGE CROPS 95 

As forage crops, both cowpeas and soy beans are 
nutritious foods for live stock. 

The vetches are slender climbing plants which are 
grown to plow under as a green manure, and as pasture 
and hay plants. 

Peas, beans, and lentils have been grown for cen- 
turies for food for man. Peas and beans are common 



Bean Harvester 



garden crops and in some sections are grown as field 
crops for market purposes. The pea vines are cut 
and hauled to the canning factories, where there are 
threshing machines which thresh out the green peas 
and separate them into different sizes for canning. 
The vines are used for forage. The beans are planted 
in rows or hills like corn, and harvested with a bean 
cutter, or pulled by hand, and are threshed like other 
seeds by tramping or pounding or by bean threshers. 
Thebean straw is used as forage for sheep and cows, 



96 MILLET, SORGHUM, AND FORAGE CROPS 

and the best beans are used as human food, while the 
inferior grades are fed to animals. Lentils have two 
small, lens-shaped seeds in each pod. They are grown 
only to a very small extent in this country. 



QUESTIONS 

i . What is the chief use of millet in Asia ? 



What is the principal use of millet in this country ? 
What are the most common kinds of millet ? 
What sorghum plants are raised in this country ? 
In addition to clover and alfalfa, what other leguminous 
plants are raised for forage ? 

• 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 101, Millets; 164, Rape as a forage 
crop; 224, Canadian field peas; 278, Leguminous crops for 
green manuring; 318, Cowpeas ; 322, Milo as a dry-land crop; 
372, Soy beans ; 441, Lespedeza, or Japan clover ; 515, Vetches. 



LESSON XXII 



WHEAT 



Kinds of wheat. — Bread is the " staff of life," and 
wheat bread is the most important food of the leading 
nations. It contains so much of 
the nutritive elements needed by 
man that it is almost a perfect 
food. There are many kinds of 
wheat. Einkorn, spelt, emmer, 
durum wheat, composite wheat, 
Polish wheat, and common wheat 
are some of the most important 
types. Common wheat, the most 
extensively grown of the wheats, 
is divided into spring wheat, and 
winter or fall wheat. Spring 
wheat is sown in the spring, while 
the winter or fall wheat is sown in 
the autumn. 

Manner of growth. — From a 
central stem beneath the ground 
several tillers or shoots grow into stems. Thus a 
single grain produces several stalks of wheat, while a 
grain of corn produces a single stalk. The roots of 
the wheat are many and fibrous, and the stems are 




Wheat Plant 



B. AND D. AG. — 7 



97 



9 8 



WHEAT 



jointed and hollow between the joints. The lower 
parts of the leaves are wrapped around the stems, while 




^sSStepaf 



im 






Harvester 



the upper parts are long, narrow, pointed blades. The 
head or spike at the top of the stem contains many 
spikelets, each containing one to five seeds. As there 
are many spikelets on each head and many tillers or 
stems from each seed, one plant may bear many hundred- 
fold. 

Farmers raise usually from ten to thirty bushels of 
wheat per acre, although sometimes as much as seventy 
bushels per acre is grown on good soils that are well 
farmed. 

Soil. — Wheat does best on light clay and loam 
soils. The seed is usually planted with a drill in rows 
a few inches apart. In most states the farmer sows 
about one to one and a quarter bushels of seed wheat 



WHEAT 



99 



per acre. The wheat field may be harrowed to stir 
the ground before the plants have grown high enough 
to be injured ; but usually no cultivation is given to 
the wheat. When grown by irrigation, wheat is 
generally flooded with water from one to five times 
during the growing season. 

Harvesting. — Wheat is harvested with a self- 
binder or harvester which cuts the wheat and binds it 
into bundles or sheaves. Several bundles are placed 
together in shocks or stooks. When dry, the sheaves 
are hauled to the threshing machine, or placed in stacks 
and threshed a few weeks later. Sometimes wheat 
is cut with heading machines or strippers, from which 
the wheat heads go direct to the thresher. 




Reaper and Thresher 



Threshing. — The threshing machine separates the 
grain from the chaff and straw. Fifty years ago wheat 



IOO 



WHEAT 




WHEAT ioi 

was threshed with a flail or tramped out by animals. 
We now have threshing machines or separators run by 
engines which thresh many thousands of bushels in a 
day. On very large farms a combined reaper and 
thresher is used, that cuts from twenty to forty acres 
of grain a day and at the same time threshes and sacks 
it ready for market. 

Einkorn, spelt, and emmer are types of wheat which 
are like oats, in that the hull adheres to the grain, while 
in common wheat the grain is free from the husks which 
held the grain before threshing. With the exception 
of emmer, these grains do not promise to become very 
important in American agriculture. 

Emmer is not subject to some of the plant diseases 
that affect other kinds of wheat. It is also a drought- 
resistant crop and therefore grows better in dry regions 
than other forms of wheat. For this reason it is becom- 
ing an important crop in dry farming. 

Emmer is planted and grown like wheat. It is 
threshed in the same way, except that the kernels are 
not separated from the hulls. The grains are rich in 
minerals, protein, and starch ; and in parts of the 
world, emmer is an important food for man, being used 
as a breakfast food. In the time of the Romans it 
was ground into flour for bread. It is a valuable food 
for stock. The hull on the grain has some value in 
stock feeding ; it makes the animal chew the grain to 
get the flavor of the kernel, and thus helps digestion. 



102 wheat 

QUESTIONS 



I 



What are the leading kinds of wheat 



? 



2. What soils are well adapted to wheat growing? 

3. In what respects does emmer differ from common wheat ? 

4. What are tillers ? 

5. What is the average yield of wheat in your locality? 
What are some of the highest yields ? 

6. What are some of the common causes of low wheat yields 
in your section ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

Write a short composition on the growing of wheat in your 
locality. Give the methods of preparing the soil, sowing the 
seed, and harvesting the crop. 

Find the average yield per acre of wheat in the United States 
and in the leading wheat countries of the world. 

Make a collection of the most important kinds of wheat. 
Each sample of grain may be kept in a small bottle. 

Plant several grains of wheat in a can or pot of earth. At 
the end of one week remove two or three of the sprouting grains. 
How many temporary roots are there ? Make a drawing of 
the young plants at this stage. A week later remove two or 
three other young plants and note the growth of permanent 
roots. Make drawings. Examine others at intervals of one 
week to note the growth of tillers. 

REFERENCES 

Write to your Agricultural College for bulletins on wheat 
growing. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 132, Principal insect enemies of growing 
wheat ; 139, Emmer, a grain for semiarid regions ; 466, Winter 
emmer. 



LESSON XXIII 
CORN 

Importance of corn. - In acreage and value, corn is 
the most important crop of the United States. Al- 
though grown in every state, yet more than half of the 
corn crop is raised in the seven states of Illinois, Iowa, 
Missouri, Nebraska, Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio. The 
United States produces about three times as much corn 
as the rest of the world ; but corn is not an important 
export of this country, for most of it is fed to cattle 
and hogs. The meat of these animals, however, is one 
of our leading exports. 

Soil and climate. —The main geographic factors in 
the growth of corn are soil and climate. Clay loams 
and silt loams are good corn soils. The silt loams of 
river bottoms are especially adapted to corn growing. 
Corn requires a large amount of humus, which is added 
to the soil by stable manure and legume crops. The 
summers must be hot, with warm nights, much sunshine, 
and of sufficient length that the corn may ripen before 
frost. The most common cause of low yields of corn 
is a shortage of rain during the growing season. A crop 
needs from ten to fifteen inches of rain pretty evenly 
distributed through the season. The moist soil of 

103 



io4 



CORN 



river valleys is another cause of the high yield of river 
bottoms. During droughts that seriously affect the 
crop on uplands, the corn on bottom land has sufficient 
moisture. 

Plowing. — Most of the land for corn is plowed in 
the spring, although a considerable acreage is plowed 
in the fall. The best time to plow depends on the 

character of the 
soil, lay of the 
land, climate, and 
previous crop. 
The seed bed 
should be deep and 
well pulverized. In 
a stiff clay corn 
should be planted 
one inch deep, and 
in open, dry soils it 
should be planted 
three or four inches 
deep. In some places where the ground is dry on top, 
the corn is often planted in the bottom of furrows 
made by a lister. The time of planting varies with 
locality and season. 

Planting. — As a rule, corn is planted just as soon as 
the ground is warm and the danger of frost is over. 
Since it is so often true that early planted corn gives 
the best yield, it is desirable that the preparation of 
the ground be sufficiently advanced, so that planting 




Corn in Shocks 



CORN 



io5 



may be done as soon as the ground and air are warm 
enough. 

Cultivation. — Shortly after the corn is planted, the 
cultivation begins and is continued until the corn is 
so large that the horses and cultivators cannot pass 
through the fields without injuring the corn. Be- 




Corn Cultivator 

fore the corn is up, or while it is quite small, the crop 
may be given the first cultivation by harrowing. The 
other cultivations are done with corn cultivators that 
stir the soil to a depth of from one to three inches, to 
kill weeds, and save moisture. During the dry weeks 
of the summer it is very important that a mulch of 
fine soil be kept to reduce the evaporation of soil mois- 
ture. After each summer rain the ground should be 
given another plowing to form this soil mulch and thus 
save the moisture for a possible drought. 



io6 



CORN 



Harvesting. The corn crop ripens in from three to 
five months. Roasting ears may be ready for use in 




Corn Field with Ripe Corn 

less than two months. The corn crop is harvested 
in two or three different ways. The most common 
method is to husk the ears from the standing stalks, 
which are left in the field and pastured by the live stock 
during the winter months. Another method is to cut 
the cornstalks by hand or with a corn-harvesting 
machine and then place the fodder in shocks. Later 
in the season the ears may be husked by hand from the 
fodder, or the fodder may be run through a corn shredder 
that husks the corn and then shreds the stalks, leaves, 
and husks into small pieces, which are stored in barns 
for forage. On many farms where there are large 



CORN 



107 



numbers of live stock, the corn is cut while green and 
put into silos and fed as silage. 

Uses of corn. - All parts of the corn plant, except 
the roots, are utilized. The stalks, leaves, and husks 
form good forage, while the grain is the best stock food 
in the world. A small percentage of corn is used in 
making alcohol and spirituous liquors. The part of 
the grain left after it is malted is used for stock food. 
Corn oil is made from the germs or embryos of corn. 
Cobs are used for fuel, and the pith is used for pack- 
ing. Corn is also an important human food. Many of 
the breakfast foods are made wholly or partly of corn. 
Hominy is the corn kernels with the outer skin removed. 
Corn starch is made from the starchy part of the grain. 
Sweet corn and pop corn are grown only for human 
food. 




Ears of Corn selected for Seed 



Seed corn. - - The selection, storage, and testing of 
seed corn is a very important part of corn culture. In 



108 CORN 

the early fall, before husking time, the farmer should 
go through his fields and select the very best ears for 
seed. They should be stored in a dry place that is well 
ventilated, and where mice and rats cannot molest. 
Seed corn should never be stored in boxes, barrels, or 
sacks. In the spring, five grains from each ear should 
be put in germinating boxes in order to test the vitality 
of the seed. Ears of corn whose grains do not all 
sprout or do not show a vigorous growth should be 
rejected. 

The average yield of corn for the whole country is 
about twenty-four bushels per acre, but good farmers 
often grow more than one hundred bushels per acre. 
In a few cases about two hundred bushels per acre 
have been raised. From eight to fourteen tons or 
more of green plants per acre may be grown for silage, 
and from two to two and one half tons of dry plants or 
fodder. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What do we mean by " corn " ? What is meant by the 
same word in Eastern countries ? Why is it sometimes called 
Indian corn ? 

2. What are the leading corn states of the United States ? 

3. What kinds of soil are best for corn ? 

4. What climatic conditions are most favorable for corn ? 

5. How did the pioneers manage to grow it in the woods? 

6. What is the most common cause of poor corn crops ? 

7. What are the main objects of corn cultivation ? 

8. In what different ways is corn harvested ? 



CORN 109 

9. What is the most important use of corn ? Name other 
uses. 

10. Although corn is our leading crop, why do we export so 
little ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. On a plate put a moist cloth or piece of blotting paper. 
Place several grains of corn on the moist surface, and cover 
with another plate. Keep in a warm place and observe from 
day to day the germination of the corn. Note the root hairs. 
How many temporary roots are there ? Make drawings of a 
germinating grain at different stages of growth. 

2. In a tall bottle or glass jar of soil, plant five grains of corn 
at each of the following depths : one, two, four, and six inches. 
Keep the soil moist, but not too wet. Observe from day to day 
the growth at each depth. Note the growth of temporary 
and permanent roots. How long does it take for the plants to 
come up from each depth ? Which plants are the strongest ? 

3. In order to test seed corn, a germination test should be 
carried out. Procure a box two or three inches deep, two feet 
wide, and two and one half feet long. Across the top of the 
box stretch wire or twine to divide the space into two-inch 
squares, and then fill the box with sand to the level of the wire 
or twine. Six kernels from each numbered ear of corn are to 
be placed in a square having the same number as the ear. 

Take the kernels from different parts of an ear, but not from 
the base nor tip. The kernels should be pressed into the sand, 
but not completely buried. Moisten the sand and cover with 
glass or other suitable material. Keep in a warm place, at a 
temperature of about 70 degrees. If all the grains from an ear 
do not send out vigorous root and stem sprouts within four or 
five days, the ear should not be used for seed corn. 

4. Write to the Agricultural College in your state for the 
score card used in judging seed corn. Bring to school ten ears 



no CORN 

of the best corn you can rind, and use the score card in judging 
this corn. If possible, an expert corn judge should correct your 
estimates. 

REFERENCES 

Write to your Agricultural College for bulletins on corn growing. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 32, Silos and silage; 81, Corn culture in 
the South; 229, Production of good seed corn; 253, Germina- 
tion of seed corn ; 292, Cost of filling silos ; 298, Food value of 
corn and corn products; 303, Corn-harvesting machinery; 313, 
Harvesting and storing corn; 325, Small farms in corn belt; 
400, More profitable corn-planting method ; 409, School lessons 
on corn; 414, Corn cultivation; 415, Seed corn. 

Selected Readings: The Corn Song, - - J. G. Whittier; 
Maize, — William W. Fosdick ; Blessing the Cornfields (Hia- 
watha), — Longfellow. 



LESSON XXIV 
RICE 

Rice an important food. — Rice is a cereal grass, the 
seeds of which are used for food by two fifths of the 
people in the world. The rice plant, like the wheat, 
produces many stems from one seed, but the heads 
bearing the seeds form a loose, nodding spray with 
only one seed in a place. 

Where grown. - — Rice is a tropical and semitropical 
plant growing in lowlands which can be flooded at 
certain times, for rice is the only crop that grows for 
the greater part of the time in water. Rice is grown 
in the southern part of the United States. Louisiana, 
Texas, and Arkansas are the leading rice states. 

Method of planting. — Rice is planted in the spring, 
from March to May, and harvested in the fall from 
August to October. There are two ways of preparing 
the land for growing rice. It may be plowed and har- 
rowed under the water, or the seed bed may be pre- 
pared in dry ground. The seed is sown broadcast or 
drilled in rows twelve or eighteen inches apart. From 
one to three bushels of seed are sown per acre. The 
rice fields have dikes or little dams built around them 
to hold the water, and after the seed is planted the 
fields are flooded with water, which remains on the 

in 



112 



RICE 



land for five or six days to sprout the seed. The water 
is then turned off and the plants allowed to grow until 
they have two leaves. Then the land is again flooded, 
covering the little plants about six inches. This irri- 
gation lasts about twenty days or a month, when the 




A Field of Rice 



water is turned off, and the rice is allowed to grow for 
a month or so, when the fields are again flooded and the 
plants left standing in the water from about June to 
August, or until the crop is full grown. The water is 
drained off, so that the crop will ripen and the ground 
dry out for harvesting. 



RICE 



"3 



Harvesting. — The rice is cut with a sickle, or a 
harvesting machine. It is threshed with the same 
machine that is used for threshing other small grains. 
The yield per acre is from ten to twenty barrels of 
1 60 pounds each. The rice grains from the thresher 
are covered with husks, and are called rough rice or 
paddy. The rice is then taken to mills which remove 
the husks and polish the grains. This polish or glossy 
finish is put on by running the rice through cylinders 
lined with soft sheepskin. 

Cooking. — Rice is usually cooked by boiling, or 
it may be puffed by machinery and used as a breakfast 
food, or as a confection, like popcorn. It is used in the 
manufacture of starch and is also used as a malting 
grain for making beer. Poorer grades are used for 
stock food. Rice straw is coarse and of little value, 
except to plow in the soil as a fertilizer. 

QUESTIONS 

1. In what countries is rice the chief food of the people ? 

2. What are the leading rice states of the United States? 

3. How is rice cultivated ? How is it harvested ? 

4. After harvesting, what changes must rice undergo before 
it is ready for the table ? 

REFERENCES 

If you live in a rice-growing state, obtain from the Agricultural 
College bulletins on the growing of rice. 

Farmers' Bulletins : 1 10, Rice culture in the United States ; 
417, Rice culture. 

B. AND D. AG. — 8 



LESSON XXV 



OATS 



Two uses. — The oat is a cereal grass that is grown 
for grain or hay. If it is raised for the grain, it is 
harvested and threshed like wheat. If the crop is to 
be used as hay, it is cut while green and harvested like 
the common hay crops. Oat hay is more nutritious 
than timothy hay. 

Manner of growth. — The seeds are borne at the 
top of the stem in a spray or panicle somewhat like rice. 

The plants branch 
or tiller at the bot- 
tom like wheat, pro- 
ducing many stems 
from a single seed. 
Nearly all kinds of 
oats that are com- 
monly grown have 
the kernels tightly 
inclosed in the 
hulls. There are 
hull-less oats which shell out when they are threshed. 
The two great classes of oats are the bush or spreading 
oats, and the side or mane oats. In the bush oats the 

114 




Oats in Shock 



OATS 



ii5 




73 

H 

<! 

o 

o 

z 

— ( 

H 

y 

> 



n6 



OATS 



small branchlets in the head which bear the seeds 
spread out in every direction. In the side oats the 
branchlets are all on one side of the head like the mane 

of a horse or a banner in 
the wind. 

Planting. — Winter oats 
are planted in the fall 
and harvested the following 
summer. Spring oats are 
planted in the spring and 
are grown in the Northern 
states, where the winters 
are too cold for oats sown 
in the fall. 

Oats like a cool climate 
and moist soils, so they are 
sown in the spring as early 
as possible. The seeds may 
be planted from one to five 
inches deep, but they do 
better when planted shallow. 
From one to three bushels of seed per acre are either 
sown broadcast or with a drill, like wheat. It is always 
better to sow the seed with a drill, so that the grains 
are evenly scattered in the row and covered with soil. 

Oats as food. - Oats are considered the best of all 
grains for feeding horses, and they are also good for 
other kinds of stock. For human food the hulls are 
taken off the grain by machinery, and the kernels are 




Oat Panicles 



OATS 117 

ground or rolled into oatmeal that is used as a break- 
fast food and other food articles. Oatmeal is one of 
the chief foods of Scotland. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What are the chief uses of oats ? 

2. How does oat hay compare in nutritive value with other 
forage crops ? 

3. Are oats grown in your locality ? If so, what methods are 
used in raising this crop ? 

4. Under what climatic conditions will oats thrive ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Make a careful study of a head of oats. How does it 
differ from a head of wheat ? Make drawings. 

2. Collect samples of fine grades of oats. Keep them in 
bottles properly labeled. 

3. Plant twenty or thirty grains of oats. At the end of one 
week dig up a few of the grains and note the temporary roots. 
How many are there ? A week later dig up other plants and 
note the growth of permanent roots. Allow the others to con- 
tinue growing, and watch the development of tillers or new 
stems. Make drawings. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 395, Sixty-day and Kherson oats; 420, 
Oats, distribution and uses ; 424, Oats, growing the crop ; 436, 
Winter oats for the South. 



LESSON XXVI 



BARLEY 



Many kinds. ■— Barley belongs to the same general 
tribe of grasses as wheat and rye. Most of the barleys 
have the grain tightly inclosed in thin hulls, and a long 

beard at the tip of each kernel. 
There are several hundred kinds of 
barley, with greater variation in the 
character of the grain than any other 
cereal. 

Range of climate. — Barley is 
grown in more parts of the world 
than any other kind of grain. It 
will mature in the far north, where 
the undersoil remains frozen during 
the summer ; and it will grow well 
in the far south. Barley will stand 
more drought and mature more 
quickly than other grains, but when 
the plants are small they are easily 
injured by too much wetness or dry- 
ness. The crop requires a rich soil and a well-prepared 
seed bed. About one and one half bushels of seed 
are sown to the acre. 

118 




Barley Plant 



BARLEY 



119 



Harvesting. The grain should be quite ripe be- 
fore it is cut. It is harvested with a self-binder and 
threshed with the common grain-threshing machine. 
Barley yields from thirty to forty bushels or more per 




Field of Ripe Barley 



acre. Barley in the hull weighs about forty-eight 
pounds per bushel. 

Uses. — This plant is supposed to have come from 
western Asia. For many hundreds of years, it was the 
grain from which civilized man made his bread. In 



120 BARLEY 

modern times, wheat has become the most important 
bread-making cereal, and barley is but little used for 
human food. About the only form in which barley is 
now used as human food is the pearl barley used in 
soups. This is made by taking the hulls off the ker- 
nels with special machines. The principal uses of 
barley are as food for stock and as malt for beer. As 
a stock food, barley is very nutritious and is almost 
equal to corn. It may be fed whole or ground into 
meal. The hull-less barley is so hard that it must be 
ground or soaked before it is fed. 

Malt. — In making beer the barley is malted by 
germinating the grains. In the sprouting grains the 
starch is changed to sugar, which is then dissolved out 
of the grain by soaking in water. After the sugar has 
been dissolved, the sprouted barley grains, called malt 
sprouts, are sold for stock food. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What are the most important uses of barley ? 

2. What are the leading barley states of the United States ? 

3. Is barley adapted to a narrow or wide range of climate ? 

4. What are the leading barley countries of the world ? (See 
Yearbook of Agriculture.) 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Plant grains of barley and make a study of the young 
plants, similar to the study of wheat and of oats. How many 
temporary roots do you find ? Usually barley has five tempo- 



BARLEY 121 

rary roots. Note the development of permanent roots and tillers. 
Make drawings. 

2. Make a careful study of a head of barley. Draw. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 427, Barley culture in Southern states; 
443, Barley : growing the crop ; 518, Winter barley. 



LESSON XXVII 



RYE 



A hardy cereal. — Rye is more closely related to 
wheat than to other cereals. The seeds are longer 

and more nearly round than 
wheat seeds. The straws or 
stems are longer, tougher, 
and more slender than wheat. 
Rye usually lives only one 
season, but sometimes the 
roots will live more than one 
year and produce two or 
more crops with one plant- 
ing. There are two kinds of 
rye — winter or fall rye, and 
spring rye. Compared with 
other grains, there are few 
varieties of rye. It is a very 
hardy plant and may be 
grown in almost any climate, 
and it is an important crop 
in far northern countries. It will grow on poorer soil 
and stand more neglect than other cereals ; but, to 
secure the highest yield, it needs good soil and care. 
Rye does not yield such heavy crops of grain as barley. 




Rye Plant 



122 



RYE 



123 



A good crop, however, produces twenty to thirty bushels 
per acre. A bushel of rye weighs fifty-six pounds. From 
fifty to seventy-five pounds of seed are sown per acre. 
Uses of the straw. Rye is grown extensively in 
parts of Europe for bread. In this country it is raised 
chiefly for the straw, which, if well grown and cared 



























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Field of Rye in the Shock 



for, is worth as much per acre as the grain. Rye straw 
is more prized than any other as bedding for horses 
and other stock. It is also used to manufacture hats, 
mats, and lemonade straws. One company in New 
York buys each year more than $25,000 of rye straw 
to make lemonade straws. To save the straw, it is 
tied in straight bundles, and these are bound together 
in bales to be sent to market. A good yield is a ton 



124 RYE 

of straw per acre. Rye is often grown for hay and 
pasture, and also as a crop to plow under to improve 
the fertility of the soil. 

Uses of the grain. — The rye grain is tough, and 
harder to grind than other grain, and is not liked so 
well by stock as other grains. Rye is better for swine 
than for other stock. Distillers buy a part of the 
grain crop for the production of alcoholic liquors. 
After fermentation has converted a part of the starch 
and sugar into alcohol, the refuse is fed to stock. Rye 
is also used to make breakfast foods. 

QUESTIONS 

i . How does rye differ from wheat ? 

2. What uses are made of rye ? 

3. What are the leading rye countries of the world? (See 
Yearbook of Agriculture.) 

4. Is rye grown in the section of country in which you live ? 
If so, what farm methods are used in raising this crop ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Obtain one or more samples of rye and add to your col- 
lection of grains. 

2. Make a careful study of a head of rye. Compare it with 
the heads of other grain plants. 

3. Plant several grains of rye in a pot of earth and study the 
young plants at different stages of growth. How many tem- 
porary roots are there ? Note the growth of permanent roots 

and tillers. 

REFERENCES 

If you live in a state that raises a considerable quantity of 
rye, write to your Agricultural College for bulletins on this crop. 



LESSON XXVIII 



COTTON 



An important fiber. — Cotton is raised for the long 
fine hairs or fibers, called lint, which grow on the 
seeds of the shrubby plant. The fibers are used to 
make clothing ; and cotton is the most important fiber 



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Cotton Field 



crop in the world. Cotton grows in hot, moist, fertile 
regions. Our Southern states form the cotton belt 
of the United States. In these states, cotton is the 



125 



126 



COTTON 



most important crop ; and this section produces about 
two thirds of the entire cotton crop of the world. 

Planting. — Cotton is grown in a three-course ro- 
tation, with a grain crop and cowpeas or clover as the 
two other crops. The seeds are planted in drill rows 
or hills, much as corn is planted, using one to three 
bushels of seed per acre. After the plants come up, 




Cotton Gin and Compress 

they are thinned with a hoe by chopping out the plants 
not wanted, leaving one plant in a place, from twelve 
to twenty inches apart. The crop is given a shallow 
cultivation with a kind of shovel plow called a sweep 
which kills weeds, keeps the soil loose, and saves the 
moisture. 

Picking cotton. When the seed pods or cotton 
bolls burst open and expose the white masses of fibers, 
the cotton is picked by hand. One person can pick 



COTTON 



127 




Cotton Products of United 
States and Rest of the 
World 



from 100 to 500 pounds in a day. All the pods do not 
ripen at once, and it usually requires about four 
months to harvest the crop. 

The fiber and the seed. — After the cotton is picked, 
it is hauled to the gin and compress. The cotton gin 
removes the seeds from the fibers and the cotton is 
pressed into bales of about 500 
pounds each. A good yield of 
cotton is from one to one and 
one half bales per acre. Before 
the cotton gin was made, women 
and children spent their eve- 
nings picking the cotton off the 
seeds by hand ; and between supper and bedtime, each 
was expected to pick enough to fill one of his shoes with 
the seeds. This would give about four pounds of 
separated cotton. The cotton gin made possible the 
growing of this crop on a large scale, just as the reaper 
made it possible to grow large crops of wheat, oats, 
and other cereals. 

Kinds. — There are two kinds of cotton grown in 
the United States. The sea-island cotton has the 
longest, toughest, and finest fiber ; while the upland 
cotton has shorter fibers, but the bolls are larger and 
produce more cotton. There are two kinds of upland 
cotton, — the long staple and short staple varieties. 
The upland cotton is the kind more generally cultivated, 
while the sea-island cotton is grown on the coast plain 
of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 



128 COTTON 

The seed. — Cottonseed oil manufactured from the 
seed is perhaps the most profitable part of the crop. 
About forty gallons are obtained from one ton of seed, 
when it is put under high pressure. The cottonseed 
oil is used for human food, and for making soap. The 
seed cake, which is left after the oil has been pressed 
out, is ground into cottonseed meal, which is a valuable 
food for stock, and also a soil fertilizer. 



QUESTIONS 

i. What is the rank of the United States as a cotton-pro- 
ducing country ? 

2. Where is the cotton belt of the United States? 

3. What climatic conditions are required by cotton ? 

4. What kinds of cotton are grown in the United States ? 

5. What methods are used in planting, cultivating, and har- 
vesting cotton ? 

6. What products are made from the seeds of cotton ? 

7. What important historical effect resulted from the inven- 
tion of the cotton gin ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Secure a branch of a cotton plant, with one or more bolls 
attached ; secure also samples of cotton, cotton cloth, cotton- 
seed oil, and cottonseed meal. 

2. Germinate a number of cotton seeds and make a study of 
the young plants. 

REFERENCES 

If you live in a cotton state, write to the Agricultural College 
in your state for bulletins on cotton growing. 



COTTON 129 

Farmers' Bulletins : 36, Cotton seed and its products ; 47, In- 
sects affecting cotton plant; 48, Manuring of cotton; 217, Es- 
sential steps in securing an early crop of cotton ; 285, Advan- 
tage of planting heavy cottonseed ; 286, Comparative value of 
whole cotton seed and cottonseed meal in fertilizing cotton ; 290, 
Cotton bollworm, summary of its life history and habits ; 302, 
Sea-island cotton, its culture, improvement, and diseases; 314, 
Method of breeding cotton to escape boll-weevil damage; 
326, Building up run-down cotton plantation; 364, Profitable 
cotton farm; 512, The boll-weevil problem. 



B. AND D. AG. 



LESSON XXIX 
FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 

The flax plant. — All of you have seen linen ; but 
how many of you have seen the plant from which come 
the fibers that are woven into linen cloth? Do you 
know that linen and linseed oil are products of the 
flax plant? The fibers come from the stems, and 
the oil is pressed from the flax seed. In the days 
of the pioneers each family grew a patch of flax 
to furnish the linen fibers which were spun and woven 
into homemade cloth. 

You have likewise seen twine and rope, made of 
hemp and other fibers ; but not many of you have 
seen the plants which furnish these fibers. 

Flax and hemp are important fiber crops, but they 
are not grown extensively in the United States. In 
Europe flax is grown mainly for its fiber, but in the 
United States it is grown chiefly for the oil. As cotton 
is our most important fiber plant, and also yields oil, 
so flax is our most important oil plant, and also yields 
valuable fiber. 

Planting. — Flax is an annual plant, always grown 
from the seeds which are sown broadcast or with a 
drill, like other small grains. It is planted in the 

130 



FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 131 



spring, after danger of frost is over. Where grown 
for the seed, from fourteen to twenty pounds of seed 
are sown per acre ; and where raised for the fiber, 
about forty pounds 
per acre are sown 
broadcast in order 
to make the plants 
grow straight and 
tall. Flax will 
grow in almost 
any kind of soil, 
but rich soils are 
required to pro- 
duce large yields 
of fiber and seed. 

Harvesting. — 
The crop matures 
in about one hun- 
dred days from 
the time of sow- 
ing. It is usually 
harvested with a 
reaper, leaving the 
bundles without tying, or tying and standing them in 
loose shocks to dry out before threshing. 

Uses of the seed. — After the linseed oil is pressed 
from the seed, the oil cake made of the crushed seeds 
is used as food for stock. This oil cake or meal is one 
of the most important stock foods, furnishing both 




Field of Flax 



132 FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 



nitrogenous matter and fat to the animals. The main 

use of linseed oil is for mixing paints. 

The fiber. — The flax fiber is separated from the 

woody part of the stems by soaking the straw in water 

for one or two 
weeks, or until the 
stems are soft. 
This softening of 
the straw by mois- 
ture is called ret- 
ting. When the 
retting process is 
complete, the straw 
is taken from the 
water and spread 
out to dry, after 
which it is put 
through machines 
which break the 
stems and separate 
the fibers. 

Where grown. 
— Flax is grown 
mainly in the 

Northwestern states. North Dakota, South Dakota, 

Minnesota, and Montana are the leading states in flax 

production. In the states named it is often raised as 

the first crop on plowed sod land. 

Hemp yields a soft fiber from the inner bark of the 




Hemp 



FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 133 

stem. The raising of this crop is confined mainly to 
Kentucky and Missouri ; and it is generally known as 
Kentucky hemp. The plant is an annual which grows 
about ten feet in. height, and is raised for both the fiber 
and seed. 

Uses of the seed. — The seed is used for bird and 
poultry food, and in the manufacture of oil for paint. 
When grown for the seed, hemp is planted and culti- 
vated in hills, like corn. When grown for the fiber, 
the seed is sown with a wheat drill, sowing both ways 
and using about a bushel of seed to the acre. 

Planting and harvesting. — In Kentucky, hemp is 
sown about the 25th of April and is ready to cut about 
the 1st of September. It is usually cut by hand 
close to the ground in order to get the whole length of 
the stems. After cutting, the stalks lie in the field for 
a week or more to dry out, after which they are tied 
into small bundles and set up in shocks. The fibers 
are loosened from the stalks by spreading the hemp on 
the field and leaving it for one or two months in winter 
so that the moisture and frost will act on it. The pro- 
cess of breaking the straw and separating the fiber is 
usually done by hand. The fiber is used in making 
burlap, twine, and carpet. 

Twine. — A very large amount of binder twine is 
used in harvesting the enormous grain crops of the 
United States. Most of the binder twine is made 
from the henequen which is grown in Cuba and southern 
Mexico. The fibers come from the long bayonet-shaped 



134 FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER FIBER PLANTS 

leaves of this plant. The abaca, a plant with large 
leaves growing in the Philippine Islands, furnishes the 
Manila hemp which is also extensively used for binder 
twine. Ropes also are made from these fibers. 

Jute is a valuable fiber plant, raised mostly in India. 
It is used for making rope and coarse fabrics. In the 
Philippines a variety of pineapple is grown for the 
fibers in the leaves which are woven into cloth. Coco- 
nut fiber is used for making ropes and sailcloth. Raffia 
is the coarse fiber from the leaves of a palm tree. 

QUESTIONS 

i . What is the name of the cloth that is made of flax fibers ? 
What part of the flax plant is used to make fibers ? 

2. Besides the fiber, flax yields what other important product ? 

3. What are the leading flax states of the United States? 

4. How is the flax crop grown ? 

5. What products are obtained from the hemp plant? 

6. What fiber plants are grown in tropical countries ? 

7. What two plants furnish nearly all the fibers for binder 
twine ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Obtain samples of tow from flax and hemp, sisal and 
Manila hemp, and cloth made from the fibers of flax, hemp, and 
jute. 

2. Crush a flaxseed on a sheet of paper and note its oily 
character. Examine samples of linseed oil, flaxseed meal, and 
oil cake. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 274, Flax culture. 

Yearbook of Agriculture : 191 1, Fibers used for binder twine, 
pp. 193-200. 



LESSON XXX 



SUGAR PLANTS 



Sugar is found in all plants and in all parts of plants. 
It is found in the sap of trees and grasses, in the roots 
of many plants, and gives sweetness to fruits and seeds. 




Sugar Cane 

Sugar plants are those which have so much sugar stored 
in parts of them that it may be extracted at a profit. 
Honey plants are those that have sweet nectar in the 
blossoms, which is used by the bees to make honey. 
Sugar cane, sugar beets, sweet sorghum, and maple 
trees are the sugar plants which are raised by farmers 
to furnish sugar and sirup. 

1 3S 



136 



SUGAR PLANTS 



Sugar cane is one of the most important crops in 
many of the hot regions of the world. Louisiana is 
by far the leading sugar state of our own country. 
Large quantities are grown in Hawaii, Cuba, Porto 
Rico, India, and Java. The sugar cane is a giant 
grass, which sometimes grows thirty feet high. The 
sugar is manufactured from the cane stalks after the 
leaves and tops have been removed. 

Planting. - — The plants are propagated by planting 
the upper part of the stems which have buds that grow 
into new plants. These pieces of stems for planting 




Field of Sugar Beets 



are called seed cane. The soil should be plowed deep 
for cane, which is planted in rows or hills, like corn, and 
cultivated the same as for corn, until the cane plants 



SUGAR PLANTS 137 

are large enough to shade the ground. The growing 
of the sugar cane crop requires a large amount of hand 
labor. The planting, the stripping off the leaves, and 
the cutting of the cane stalks are done by hand. 

Raw sugar. — After the cane is cut, it is hauled to 
the mills, where the juice is pressed out of the stems 
and then boiled in vacuum pans until the crude or raw 
sugar is obtained. The raw sugar is then shipped to 
refineries, where it is changed by a number of com- 
plicated processes into refined sugar. 

Sweet sorghum contains much sugar in the juice 
and is used for the manufacture of .sirup and molasses. 
Sugar can be made from sorghum sirup, but this is 
not done in the United States. 

Beet sugar. — During the last few years sugar beets 
have supplied nearly half of the world's sugar supply. 
The leading countries in the production of beet sugar 
are Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In the 
United States the sugar beet is grown in the Western and 
Northern states. Colorado, California, and Michigan 
are the leading states in the yield of beet sugar. 

Sugar beets are raised from the seed, which is sown 
with drills in the spring. The rows are about twenty 
inches apart, and the small seeds are sown close together, 
using about twenty pounds of seed per acre. After 
the plants come up they are thinned out until they 
stand eight or ten inches apart in the rows. The soil 
is tilled with horse cultivators, which work two to four 
rows at a time. The sugar beets ripen in September 



138 



SUGAR PLANTS 



or October, and are then plowed up with a special beet 
plow. The tops are cut off, and the roots are sent to 




Beet Sugar Factory 



the factory. From fifteen to twenty-five tons of beets 
form the usual yield per acre. 

Maple sugar. — The delicious maple sugar is made 
from the sap of the sugar maple and red maple trees. 
Early in the spring, when the sap begins to flow, the 
trees are tapped by boring a hole in the trunk and 



SUGAR PLANTS 



*39 



putting in a spout called a spile. A bucket hangs from 
the spile and catches the sap as it runs out. The 
maple sap, which contains about 3 per cent of sugar, 
is boiled down into a thick sirup or made into sugar. 
A cheaper sirup is made from glucose, which is manu- 
factured from corn starch ; and this has largely taken 
the place of the better kinds of sirup on the market. 




Gathering Maple Sap 

QUESTIONS 

i. What are the two most important sugar plants? Name 
others. 

2. What are the leading sugar-producing countries of the 
world ? 

3. What methods are used in growing sugar cane ? 

4. What are the main steps in the manufacture of cane sugar ? 

5. How are sugar beets raised? 



140 SUGAR PLANTS 

6. What states of the United States lead in the production of 
sugar beets ? What is the leading sugar-beet country of the 
world ? (See Yearbook of Agriculture.) 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. If you live where sugar cane is raised, write a composition 
on the growing of this crop. 

2. If you live where sugar beets are raised, write a composi- 
tion on the growing of this crop, and the manufacture of beet 
sugar. 

3. Explain the process of making maple sirup, if you live in 
a section of the country that produces this article. 

REFERENCES 

If you live in a state that raises sugar cane or sugar beets, 
write to your Agricultural College for bulletins on sugar cane or 
sugar beets. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 52, Sugar beet, culture, seed develop- 
ment, manufacture, and statistics; 93, Sugar as food; 252, 
Maple sugar and sirup; 477, Sorghum sirup manufacture; 517, 
The production of maple sirup and sugar. 



LESSON XXXI 



POTATOES 



Seed potatoes. — The potato is the most important 
of the so-called vegetables. Potatoes are classed as 
a root crop although they are really underground stems. 
In the underground stem, called tubers, the plants 
store up starch in a form that is good to eat. The true 
seeds of the potato plant are borne in seed-balls at the 
top of the stems. These seeds are used only in breeding 
work to produce new varieties 
of potatoes. The eyes on po- 
tatoes are buds which grow, 
when planted, and produce 
new potatoes like the kind 
planted. Seed potatoes should 
be selected from the most 
prolific hills ; they should be 
true to type and free from 
any appearance of disease. 
The seed potatoes may be 
planted whole, or they may 
be cut into pieces before planting, each piece having 
one or two eyes. 

Planting. — Potatoes are raised in crop rotations of 
alfalfa or clover and small grains as the other two crops. 
They do better in a cool climate ; and contrary to 




Potato Plant with Tubers 



141 



142 



POTATOES 



general belief, they will grow with less moisture than 
many other crops. They are planted in the spring, in 
rows about three feet apart and from eight to eighteen 
inches apart in the rows. They usually do best on a 
well-drained, deeply tilled, mellow, and rich loam soil. 

They are planted by 
hand or with a potato 
planter and covered 
about four inches deep. 
The soil is kept well 
stirred until the plants 
are too large for the 
cultivator to pass be- 
tween the rows with- 
out injuring them. In 
the fall when the po- 
tatoes are ripe, and 
before danger of freez- 
ing in the ground, they 
are dug with a potato 
fork or with a potato-digging machine. They are then 
picked up, sorted, and sacked for market. Potatoes 
are kept through the winter by being stored in cellars, 
where they are safe from freezing. 

Varieties. — There are many varieties of potatoes, 
differing in color, shape, table qualities, and time of 
planting. The two great classes, depending on the time 
of planting and harvesting, are early potatoes and late 
potatoes. 




Potato Diggzr 



POTATOES 



H3 



Uses. — The great use of potatoes is to serve as 
a food for man. They are also used as a stock 
food and for the manufacture of starch and alcohol. 
The vines are of no value except to be plowed into the 
soil to increase its fertility. 

Sweet potatoes. - In the South sweet potatoes are 
an important crop. In the North they do not thrive 






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Gathering Potato Crop 

unless given special attention. The parts of the sweet 
potato plant that are used for food are the fleshy roots 
which have large amounts of starch and sugar stored 
in them. Several roots branch from the crown of the 
plant, and these become thickened and fleshy for a 
length of a few inches or a foot or more. They con- 
tain enough sugar to give them a sweet taste. 

Planting. — The sweet potato is the one root crop 
for which shallow plowing is practiced. On deeply 



144 



POTATOES 



plowed lands, in which the soil is soft and loose, the 
fleshy roots are apt to grow too long, and not be large 
enough in diameter, so the land for sweet potatoes is 
usually plowed only five or six inches deep. Sweet 
potatoes do best on light, sandy soil that is warm and 

moist. About a month 
before the time to set 
out the plants, they are 
started by placing the 
roots in a hotbed and 
covering them with 
about two inches of 
soil. The young plants, 
which grow up from 
the roots, are pulled off 
when they are four to 
six inches high and 
transplanted to the 
field. The field is usu- 
ally plowed into fur- 
rows, and the plants 
set out in the bottom of the furrow, either by hand 
or by a transplanting machine, setting them about 
twenty inches apart in rows, from two to three feet 
apart. 

Cuttings. — Sometimes the crop is grown through 
the propagation of the new plants by cuttings or slips. 
Pieces of the vine, from one to two feet long, are cut off 
and planted in the soil, the same as the young plants 




Sweet Potatoes 



POTATOES 145 

which are grown from the roots. Where the season is 
long enough, this method is preferred because the roots 
are many times affected with diseases, and these are 
avoided by using the slips. 

Cultivation. — After the plants have started to 
grow, the ridges between the rows are cultivated down 
to level the field and cover the vines to a greater depth. 
The ground is tilled to keep the top loose, to kill weeds, 
and save moisture. Sweet potatoes are harvested by 
plowing or digging out the roots in the fall, before dan- 
ger of frost. They are allowed to lie on the top of the 
ground in the sun for a few hours, until they are dry, 
when they are picked up into baskets and packed into 
barrels to send to market, or are stored in houses built 
to keep them through the winter. 

Uses. — Sweet potatoes are used for human food, 
for stock food, for the manufacture of alcohol, and for 
other purposes. They make a delicious vegetable 
to serve with meats. They are more extensively grown 
in the United States than in other countries. 



QUESTIONS 

1. How are potatoes propagated ? 

2. What soil conditions are best for potatoes? 

3. Under what climatic conditions do potatoes grow? 

4. What are the rive leading potato states ? (See Yearbook 
of Agriculture.) 

5. What methods are used in growing potatoes in the section 
in which you live? What are the varieties most generally 
raised ? 

B. AND D. AG. — IO 



146 POTATOES 

6. What are the chief uses of potatoes ? 

7. What conditions of soil and climate do sweet potatoes 
require ? 

8. How are sweet potatoes grown ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Place a potato in a warm, moist place and watch the 
sprouting of the eyes or buds. 

2. Cut a potato into several pieces, in such a way that each 
piece has one or two eyes. Plant these pieces in the ground or 
in a box of earth. From time to time pull up a plant to note 
the growth of roots and tubers. How long after planting do 
young tubers appear? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 35, Potato culture; 295, Potatoes and 
other root crops as food; 324, Sweet potatoes; 365, Farm 
management in northern potato-growing sections ; 386, Potato 
culture on irrigated farms of the West ; 407, Potato as truck 
crop; 410, Potato culls as source of industrial alcohol; 520, 
Storage and marketing sweet potatoes. 



LESSON XXXII 
MELONS, PUMPKINS, AND CUCUMBERS 

Cultivation. — Watermelons, muskmelons, pumpkins, 
squashes, cucumbers, and gourds belong to the gourd 
family. All of them except gourds are cultivated as field 
or garden crops, and in the same general way. These 
vine crops are grown from seeds, planted in the spring, 
after the weather becomes warm. They are planted 
in hills from four to seven feet apart each way, and to 
a depth of one inch or less. They like rich loam soils, 
and long, hot seasons. The seeds of these vines retain 
vitality longer than most seeds, and they germinate 
better after two or three years than when fresh. 

Watermelons have been prized as human food for 
more than four thousand years ; and no doubt the 
ancient Egyptian farmer took pride in having large, 
ripe melons to share with his friends just as we do to-day. 
Watermelon seeds form quite an article of food in 
China ; and in Africa there is a vine whose fruit has 
large, flat seeds that are eaten as we eat nuts. While 
watermelons grow in the northern part of the United 
States, yet they do best in the warm, sandy loams of 
the southern states. 

147 



148 MELONS, PUMPKINS, AND CUCUMBERS 

Muskmelons are more easily grown than water- 
melons. The cantaloupes are furrowed, hard-rind 
melons, while the " nutmegs " are netted, soft-rind 
muskmelons. 




Muskmelons 



Pumpkins and squashes are raised for human food 
and also for stock food. As stock food they are often 
profitable crops, yielding as much as thirty tons per 
acre. The field pumpkin is often grown with corn ; 
and when the corn is cut and shocked, the ground may 
be almost yellow with ripe pumpkins. They are used 



MELONS, PUMPKINS, AND CUCUMBERS 149 

for making pumpkin pies ; and the canning of pump- 
kins for winter use is an important part of the work in 
canning factories. 

Uses. — The squashes are cooked either green or 
ripe as a table vegetable, and the sweet varieties are 
used for pies. They are also fed to hogs and cattle. 
Squashes occasionally grow to enormous size, some 
weighing over 300 pounds. 

Cucumbers are a standard garden vegetable, and 
are eaten fresh or pickled in salt or vinegar. Gourds 
are grown in this country mainly as curiosities. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What crop plants belong to the gourd family? 

2. What conditions of soil and climate are required by water- 
melons ? 

3. How are pumpkins grown? What are the uses of this 
crop? 

4. How does a cantaloupe differ from a nutmeg muskmelon ? 

5. What uses are made of squashes ? Of cucumbers? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1 . Place several seeds of each of this group of plants on a plate 
germinator and make a study of the seedlings of each kind. 

* 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 231, Spraying for cucumber and melon 
diseases; 254, Cucumbers. 



LESSON XXXIII 



TOBACCO 



• Planting. — Tobacco seed is planted in beds located 

in warm, well-drained spots with rich, loose soil. Brush 

or other wood is 
burned on the bed 
to make the soil 
loose and enrich 
it with ashes. In 
some localities, in- 
stead of using 
wood, the soil is 
heated by covering 
the bed with a large 
pan and applying 
steam. Whatever 
the process, the 
chief advantage of 
heating is that it 
kills weed seeds, 
bacteria, and fungi 
in the soil. After 
the seed is sown, 

boards are placed on edge around the beds and muslin 

is stretched over to keep in the heat. 

IS© 




Tobacco Plant 



TOBACCO 



I5i 



Cultivation. — The tobacco fields are plowed early 
in the spring and made loose and mellow by har- 
rowing. When the 



plants in the beds 
are a few inches 
high they are taken 
up and set out 
in rows by hand 
or with a planter. 
After planting, the 
ground is cultivated 
until the plants are 
too large for the 
horses to pass be- 
tween the rows. 

Suckers . — When 
the plants reach a 
height of about 
two feet, and have 
a dozen or more 
leaves, the tops are 




Field of Tobacco 



cut off to cause the leaves to grow larger. After the 
tops are removed, little suckers grow out from the stalks 
just above the bases of the leaves ; and in order to 
secure large leaves of good quality, the farmer must 
remove these suckers, which would take up the food 
needed by the leaves. The farmer must also go over 
the tobacco field to remove the large green tobacco 
worms which feed upon the leaves. 



152 



TOBACCO 



Harvesting. — In the fall, when the leaves begin to 
turn brown, the farmer splits each tobacco stalk with 
a sharp blade down from the top to within three or 
four inches of the ground, and then cuts off the stalk 
at the top of the ground. Several of the cut plants 




Curing House for Tobacco 

are hung upside down upon a tobacco stick to cure. 
In a few hours, or a day or two, the tobacco is ready to 
be taken to well-ventilated barns, where the curing is 
completed. 

Marketing. — When the farmer is ready to market 
his crop, he usually strips the leaves from the stalks, 
and stores them in barrels, being careful that the proper 
amount of moisture is present in the leaves. 



TOBACCO 153 

In recent years the average acreage of tobacco is 
about one million acres, or one third the acreage of 
potatoes. The value of the tobacco crop is less than 
half that of potatoes. The leading tobacco states are 
Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, 
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Connecticut valley 
is also an important tobacco region. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How is the seed bed prepared for tobacco seed ? 

2. When are the young plants transplanted ? 

3. What field work must be given to the growing crop of 
tobacco ? 

4. How is tobacco harvested ? 

5. What are the leading tobacco states ? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 60, Methods of curing tobacco; 82, 
Culture of tobacco; 83, Tobacco soils; 120, Principal insects 
affecting tobacco plant; 343, Cultivation of tobacco in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee; 416, Production of cigar-leaf tobacco in 
Pennsylvania. 



LESSON XXXIV 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



A garden is a small piece of land intensively culti- 
vated. Here, better than in any other place, one may 
learn many lessons about crops and soils. In every 




Vegetable Garden 

newly settled country the gardens first show the possi- 
bilities of farming. 

Uses. — The garden may be made the most inter- 
esting and instructive place on the farm. In the city, 
the garden on the city lot or the school garden affords 

154 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



155 



the children and the mothers and fathers interesting 
and enjoyable recreation. A little garden, perhaps not 
more than a rod square, may become a real playground 
on which one may rest the mind from business cares, 
keep himself in close touch with nature, and sup- 
ply himself with 
good things to eat. 
Growing many dif- 
ferent kinds of 
plants in the gar- 
den will increase 
our interest and 
pleasure in it. 
There is great en- 
joyment in grow- 
ing some rare 
plant, or in grow- 
ing all the varieties 
of some garden 
vegetable, or in producing the finest specimens. 

Preparing the soil. — The first thing of importance 
is to make the soil of the garden as fertile as possible. 
This can be secured by careful tillage and the addition 
of fertilizers. If the soil is in good tilth and has an 
abundance of organic matter and mineral plant food, 
along with the proper conditions of moisture, success 
is almost certain with nearly all of the things we may 
plant. A vegetable garden is usually one of the most 
profitable things on a farm. 




Using the Wheel Hoe in an Onion Patch 



156 VEGETABLE GARDENING 

Long rows. — It is best to plant everything in long 
rows, so that the land may be cultivated with a horse 
cultivator or with a wheel hoe. Use level culture, 
except where ditches may be necessary to irrigate or 
drain the soil, or where trenches are needed for banking 
up celery or for throwing the soil toward peanuts or 
potatoes. Hilling up corn, tomatoes, and many other 
crops is of little or no value and makes unnecessary 
work. Keep out the weeds and never leave old plants 
or refuse, like cabbage stumps, in the garden through 
the winter. They may have insects or disease organ- 
isms on them that will injure the next crops. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are some of the advantages that may be derived 
from gardens ? 

2. What are some of the most important rules to be observed 
in gardening ? 

3. What vegetables and flowers are suitable for garden 
planting ? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 218, School garden; 220, Tomatoes; 
255, Home vegetable garden; 282, Celery; 354, Onion culture; 
359, Canning vegetables in the home; 433, Cabbage; 434, 
Home production of onion seed and sets ; 460, Frames as a factor 
in truck growing; 488, Diseases of cabbage and related crops 
and their control. 



LESSON XXXV 



CROPS GROWN FOR BEVERAGES 



Coffee, tea, and cacao are plants that are grown 
almost exclusively for beverages. While these three 
beverages are extensively used in the United States, 
yet with the exception of a small amount of tea grown 
in some of the southern states, the plants are not grown 
in this country. 

Coffee is the seed of a tree that in cultivation is 
kept down to bush size. The coffee trees grow in 
moist, warm regions 
that are free from 
frost, and in a 
soil that contains 
a large amount 
of organic matter. 
The trees come 
into bearing when 
they are six years 
old, and continue 
to bear for thirty 
or forty years. 

The coffee seeds or " berries " are inclosed in a pulpy 
fruit, and after they are picked, the first thing usually 

157 




Coffee Beans and Blossoms 



i58 



CROPS GROWN FOR BEVERAGES 



done is to remove the pulp from the seeds. Then they 
are cured by leaving them in the sun for several days. 
When cured the two outer coverings are removed and 
the coffee is packed for shipment. Sometimes the 
coffee is dried before the pulp is removed and the pulp 
and coverings are removed afterwards. 

About two thirds of the coffee crop is grown in Brazil. 
Large quantities are grown in Central America, the 
West Indies, and Java. 




Picking Tea in Japan 



Tea is the dried leaves of an evergreen shrub or small 
tree that grows mainly in China, Japan, India, and 



CROPS GROWN FOR BEVERAGES 



!59 



Java. The plants require a warm, moist climate, and 
a soil with good drainage and a large amount of organic 
matter. The regu- 
lar gathering of the 
leaves does not be- 
gin until the shrub 
is five years old, 
although a small 
amount of leaves 
may be taken in the 
third year. The 
leaves are picked 
several times a 
year. After pick- 
ing, the leaves are 
dried and rolled, 
then dried again 
and packed for sale. 

Cacao is the name 
of the tree whose seeds are used to make cocoa and 
chocolate. In the pods of this tree from thirty to fifty 
nuts or beans are inclosed in a pulpy mass. After the 
cacao beans are removed from the pods, they undergo 
a fermentation process and are then dried. Then the 
beans are shipped to factories in Europe and the 
United States, and used to make cocoa and chocolate. 

Large quantities of cacao beans are raised in southern 
Mexico, Central America, and the tropical parts of 
South America. 




Cacao Beans 



160 CROPS GROWN FOR BEVERAGES 

\ 

QUESTIONS 

1. What plants are grown primarily for beverages ? 

2. What is the greatest coffee-producing country in the 
world ? What other countries produce coffee ? 

3. What is the general character of the coffee plant ? 

4. What are the leading tea-producing countries ? 

5. What is the general character of the tea plant ? 

6. Cocoa and chocolate are made from what part of the cacao 
tree? 

REFERENCE 

Farmers' Bulletins : 301, Home-grown tea. 






LESSON XXXVI 
LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 

We use many well-known products that come from 
little -known crops in our own country, or from plants 
that grow only in foreign countries. 

The Spices are a group of products from cultivated 
plants grown in foreign lands. Pepper, ginger, cloves, 
cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg are well-known spices. 
Black pepper is the ground seed of a vine that grows 
in the East Indies. The principal red peppers are 
cayenne, chili, paprika, and sweet peppers. Cayenne 
or red pepper is the pulverized pods. The sweet peppers 
are pickled while green or dried after they are ripe. 
Ginger is made from the spicy roots of a plant that is 
raised in tropical countries. Cloves are the dried 
flower buds of an evergreen tree that grows mainly in 
the East Indies. Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tree 
that grows in many tropical countries. Allspice comes 
from the seeds of a tree grown almost exclusively in 
Jamaica. Nutmegs are the kernels from the seeds of 
a tree that grows in tropical regions. 

Medicinal Plants. — Many medicines are produced 
from plants, and some of these are important farm 
crops. Ginseng, a plant native to America, is sold 

B. AND D. AG. — II x 6l 



l62 



LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 




Tapping a Rubber Tree 



LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 



163 



principally to the Chinese. Some plants are used for 
dyeing purposes. In early times, the indigo plant 
was an important crop in Virginia. 

Sources of Tannin. — Many plants are raised for 
the tannin in them. Tannin is a material used for 
tanning skins. It is 
obtained from the bark 
of some trees, like the 
oak and hemlock. 
Canaigre is a plant 
belonging to the dock 
family, which is grown 
for the tannin con- 
tained in the thick 
roots. 

Rubber. — Most of 
our rubber comes from 
the rubber trees of 
Mexico, Central Amer- 
ica, and South America. 
The milky sap of these 
trees is used to make 
rubber. The sap is 
obtained by making shallow cuts in the bark of the 
rubber trees and collecting the sticky liquid as it flows 
from the cuts. A shrub, called guayule, that grows 
in southwestern United States and northern Mexico, 
contains a sap from which rubber can be made. 
Many other plants have sap that may be successfully 




Vanilla Bean 



164 LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 

converted into rubber. So much rubber is used for 
the tires of automobiles and other vehicles, that there 
is great interest in plants that yield rubber. 

Chicle Gum. — Chewing gum is made from the sap 
of the chicle tree that grows in southern Mexico and 
Central America. The gummy sap is purified, and 





W'^^^^r 








^BSv : "^pfc» *'wBm^M 






^B ■■ : ^M 


wf ^T*ti» ^HBB ri«' ' *,. 








V JK| 


t *" Hsiyii^ 








^H BPs " * & ] 





Edible Mushrooms 



boiled with sugar and flavors that make it taste 
good. 

Flavors. — There are many plants raised for flavors. 
Lemon oil is extracted from lemons, and vanilla is 
made from the vanilla bean which is grown in Mexico 
and other tropical countries. Some years ago, it was 
found that peppermint will grow well in the black soils 
of Michigan, and some farmers became rich growing 
this plant for the peppermint oil it contains. 



LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 165 

Mushrooms are an important crop raised by mar- 
ket gardeners. Since these plants grow in the dark, 
they are often raised in caves and cellars and under 
benches in greenhouses. These plants, having no 
green parts, must have ready-made food ; and so the 
soil for mushrooms must contain a large amount of 
organic matter. While mushrooms are reproduced 
from spores, yet the usual method of propagation is to 
take small masses of the compost in which are the under- 
ground parts of the mushroom and plant these in the 
new mushroom beds. Each little cube of dried com- 
post containing the white threads is called mushroom 
spawn. 

Hops. — In parts of the United States, hops are an 
important crop. Hop plants are vines that are grown 
on poles. The hops are picked and pressed into bales 
for market. These pods, called hops, are used in 
brewing to flavor beer. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What plants yield spices ? 

2. What is rubber ? How is it obtained ? 

3. What plants are valuable because 01 their medicinal 
properties ? 

4. What plants yield tannin? What use is made of this 
product ? 

5. What plants are grown for the flavoring extracts that are 
made from them ? 

6. How are mushrooms raised ? 

7. What use is made of hops ? 



1 66 LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS 



PRACTICAL EXERCISES 



i. For study obtain samples of the plants mentioned in 
the lesson. Procure samples of crude rubber. . 

2. Make a cut in the bark, leaf, or fruit of the Osage orange 
tree. The milky sap that flows from the wound closely re- 
sembles the sap of rubber trees. The rubber trees and the Osage 
orange tree belong to the same family. 



LESSON XXXVII 
POME FRUITS 

Apples. — The apple-like fruits are called pomes. 
A pome is a fruit having a core which contains the 
seeds and is surrounded by the fleshy part. The prin- 
cipal pome fruits are apples, pears, and quinces. The 
apple is the most common and the most highly prized 
of all fruits. 

Apple trees will live and bear fruit in almost every 
part of this country. No other fruit, unless it is the 
strawberry, will grow in so many different kinds of 
climate and soil ; and there are comparatively few 
farmers who do not plant apple trees. Apples will 
grow best on a rich, sandy loam with good drainage ; 
but almost any soil will do if it has good drainage, so 
that the roots do not stand in water. 

Propagation. — Apple trees are propagated by tak- 
ing buds or scions from trees of the variety we wish to 
grow, and grafting them on the seedling trees which 
have been grown from apple seeds. When the grafted 
trees are one or two years old, they are set out in orchards. 
They are planted from twenty to forty feet apart, 
each way. Growing clover or alfalfa on the land is 
good preparation for apple trees. The ground of the 

167 



1 68 



POME FRUITS 



orchards should be tilled in order to kill weeds and 
reduce the loss of moisture. Usually trees begin to 
bear five years after setting out ; and with proper 
care they will continue to live and bear fruit during the 
farmer's lifetime. 




Apples should be handled with Care 



Uses. — Apples are eaten raw and are cooked in 
many ways. They are boiled for sauce, baked, roasted ; 
and made into pies, butter, jelly, preserves, and pickles. 
They are ground up and the juice pressed out for cider, 
and the cider is allowed to ferment into vinegar. 
Many apples are dried for winter use. Apples and the 
pulp from cider mills may be used for feeding stock. 



POME FRUITS 169 

Pears are not quite so hardy as apples, but they are 
grown almost everywhere. They are picked before 
they are fully ripe and are allowed to ripen after they 
are placed in storage. This is done because if they 
are allowed to ripen on the tree, they store up in the 
flesh, especially around the core, hard particles like 
sand which are called pear grit. They do not contain 
so much grit if they are picked green and placed in 
storage to ripen. 

Quinces are not an important fruit. They are used 
for jelly and preserves. Loquats are grown in the 
South and in California. They are used mainly as 
fresh fruit. 

Dwarfing. — Pear trees may be dwarfed by grafting 
them on quince seedlings. Apple trees may be dwarfed 
by grafting them on dwarf kinds of seedlings. The 
dwarfed trees may be planted closer together than the 
ordinary trees. They are easier to spray and the fruit 
can be gathered without ladders. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What is the most important fruit grown in this country ? 

2. What is a pome? What are the principal pome fruits? 

3. What kind of soil is best for apple trees ? 

4. How are apple trees propagated ? 

5. Why should pears be picked before they are ripe ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. On a certain day, each pupil should bring, if possible, 
good specimens of the apples grown in the home orchard. 



170 



POME FRUITS 



The pupil should know the names of the apples he brings. Then 
the whole collection should be studied until each pupil is able 
to recognize the apples of many varieties. The general ap- 
pearance, keeping qualities, and flavor of each should be studied. 
In a town or city a single apple of each of several varieties on 
sale in fruit stores may be studied. 

2. To illustrate the general plan of propagating apple trees 
the following exercise should be performed. Plant a number 
of apple seeds in the ground ; and when the seedlings come up 
in the spring, carefully cultivate them in order to get rapid 
growth. In the fall remove the young trees with their roots 
from the ground, tie them in a bundle, and keep in moist sand 
in a cool cellar through the winter. Store in the same way the 
scions cut from a vigorous apple tree of the variety that you 
wish to propagate. Sometime during the winter the scions 
should be grafted to the seedlings at the point where the stem 
of each joins the root system. Place the grafted trees in the 
sand and in the spring set them out in the nursery bed. After 
two more years of growth, the trees may be transplanted to the 
ground where they are to remain permanently. Consult your 
teacher about the details of grafting. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 113, The apple and how to grow it; 
153, Orchard enemies in the Pacific Northwest ; 171, Control of 
codling moth; 283, Spraying for apple diseases and codling 
moth in the Ozarks ; 291, Evaporation of apples ; 482, The pear 
and how to grow it; 492, The more important insect and 
fungous enemies of the fruit and foliage of the apple. 

Selected Readings: An Apple Orchard in the Spring, — 
William Martin; The Planting of the Apple Tree, — W. C. 
Bryant ; The Little Red Apple Tree, — James Whitcomb Riley ; 
The Apple, — John Burroughs. 



LESSON XXXVIII 

STONE FRUITS 

» 

The peach, cherry, plum, and apricot are called 
stone fruits because the seeds are inclosed in stonelike 
hulls. 

Peaches are grown in all parts of the United States, 
but the commercial growing of peaches is mainly con- 
fined to the regions which are comparatively free from 
late spring frosts. Large quantities are grown in the 
Southern and Pacific states. On the east and south 
shores of the Great Lakes, where the presence of water 
prevents extreme changes of temperature, great crops 
of peaches are produced. 

Location of orchards. — Peaches do best in well- 
drained sandy loams. The orchards should be placed 
on high ground from which cold air will drain off to 
lower ground. Killing frosts are more likely to occur 
on low ground than on neighboring hills and slopes, 
for the cold air, like water, will flow down the slopes 
and settle in low places. 

A northern slope is considered better than a southern 

slope, for on the northern slope, which is turned away 

from the sun, the opening of the buds is delayed until 

the danger of frost is past. 

171 



172 



STONE FRUITS 



X 



Propagation. — Peaches, as well as the other stone 
fruits, are propagated by growing seedling trees from 
seeds and then grafting the seedlings with buds from 
the variety to be grown. 

The trees do not live so long as apple trees ; nor do 
they grow so large and therefore they may be planted 

more closely together. A good 
distance is fifteen or twenty 
feet apart each way. 

The fruit. — The common 
peaches are covered with fine 
hair or fuzz. The nectarine is 
a variety with a smooth sur- 
face. Peaches whose flesh is 
free from the stones are called 
freestones, and those whose 
flesh is firmly held to the stones 
are called clingstones. 

Peaches are extremely perish- 
able, and must be used within 
a few days after they are ripe. 
They are eaten raw, and may 
be canned, dried, or preserved. 
Plums are grown in all sections of the United States, 
but the states of California, Oregon, and Washington 
produce nearly four fifths of the entire yield. Outside 
of the Pacific states they are grown only for local use. 
Kinds of plums. — In this country three general 
kinds of plums are grown. The Japanese plums are 




Peach 



STONE FRUITS 



J 73 



grown in the warmer sections. The European plums 
are generally grown in the northern states. In climates 
too severe for the Japanese and European varieties, 
the American plums, which have been developed from 
native wild forms, 
are cultivated. 

Prunes. — The 
sweet plums are 
called prunes. 
They have so much 
sugar in them that 
they will preserve 
themselves, like 
raisins, when they 
dry. Dried prunes 
are an important 
article of food. 

Cherries are 
grown on nearly 
every farm for do- 
mestic use, but 
their production on 
a large scale for 
commercial purposes is confined mainly to California. 
The states leading in the production of cherries are 
California, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, 
and New York. 

Cherry trees come into bearing in three or four years 
after being planted. They are set out from ten to 




Plum Orchard in Bloom 



174 STONE FRUITS 

fifteen feet apart each way. They do well in any well- 
drained, rich soil and will grow with less moisture than 
most fruits. 

Apricots are largely raised in the South ; and in Cali- 
fornia there are apricot orchards many acres in extent. 
The fruit is eaten fresh, and it may be dried or canned 
for winter use. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What are the most important kinds of stone fruits? 

2. Where are the great peach-growing sections of the United 
States ? 

3. What situations are best for peach trees? 

4. How are peach trees propagated ? 

5. What are nectarines ? 

6. Where is the great plum-growing section of the United 
States ? 

7. What are prunes? 

8. What states lead in the production of cherries ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. In the fall select good peach stones from healthy trees, 
and keep them through the winter out-of-doors in a box of sand 
so that the shells may be softened by freezing and thawing. In 
the spring plant the seeds in a bed in the garden. The young 
seedling trees will grow three or four feet high during the first 
season. 

In August or September each seedling should be budded with 
a bud taken from a tree of the variety you wish to propagate. 
In the South, budding should be done a few weeks earlier. 
Make a T-shaped cut in the bark of a seedling, and in the cut 
insert a bud with a little shield of its own bark. Close the 



STONE FRUITS 175 

edges of the bark together and tie with a strip of cloth. As soon 
as the bud begins to grow, cut off the young tree a few inches 
above the bud, and remove all other buds that may grow on the 
tree. From this transplanted bud will develop the trunk and 
branches of a tree that will bear fruit of the same kind as that 
of the tree from which the bud was taken. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 80, Peach twig-borer, an important 
enemy of stone fruits ; 440, Spraying peaches for the control 
of brown-rot, scab, and curculio. 



LESSON XXXIX 
CITRUS FRUITS 

Where grown. — The orange, pomelo, or grapefruit, 
lemon, lime, and citron are citrus fruits, which grow 
in tropical and semitropical regions. They are grown in 
California, Arizona, Florida, and the coastal belt in 
Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Southern Cali- 
fornia is by far the greatest citrus region of our 
country. This region extends into northern California 
in the Sacramento valley. 

Orange and lemon groves present a beautiful sight. 
The trees have glossy, evergreen leaves and they 
blossom and bear fruit all the time. On a single tree 
there may be fragrant white blossoms and ripe fruit 
at the same time. The trees will adapt themselves 
to a great variety of soils. Large citrus crops can be 
grown from soils which are regarded as worthless for 
ordinary agriculture. But a rich loam that permits 
free drainage is best for these trees. 

Propagation. — In California the citrus trees are 
grown in regions that were formerly deserts. The 
trees are planted from twenty to twenty-five feet apart 
each way. Formerly the orange and lemon trees were 

176 



CITRUS FRUITS 



177 



grown from seeds, but now they are propagated by 
budding the desired varieties to seedlings. It is evident 
that seedless oranges cannot be grown from seeds. 
When the orange trees are set out, they are trimmed 
back, so that the branches start out from the trunk at 
a distance of two 
or three feet above 
the ground. 

Cultivation . — The 
orange and lemon 
orchards are culti- 
vated in the same 
way. The ground 
is kept covered with 
a loose soil mulch 
by frequent culti- 
vation, so that there 
will be only a slight 
loss of soil moisture. 
In the western cit- 
rus section the or- 
chards must be 

irrigated. In the southern belt the orchards are not 
irrigated, for the rainfall is sufficient. 

Uses. — Oranges are generally eaten in their nat- 
ural state, although they are sometimes preserved. A 
drink called orangeade is made from the juice of the 
orange. The juice of the lemon is used for flavoring 
foods and also for making lemonade. 

B. AND D. AG. — 12 




Orange Tree 



178 



CITRUS FRUITS 



An important industry. In California the orange 
and lemon industry has reached such proportions that 
thousands of carloads are shipped each year to eastern 
markets. The citrus industry in Florida is not nearly 
so extensive as in California. But the Florida citrus 
crops reach the eastern market centers with less cost 
of transportation than the western crops. 











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Both seedless oranges and those with seeds are grown, 
but the growing of seedless oranges is increasing. The 
most important variety is the Washington Navel, a 
seedless orange which is extensively raised in California. 

The kumquat is a dwarf orange grown in the southern 
citrus belt. It is used to make preserves or to eat in 
the natural state. 



CITRUS FRUITS 179 

Grapefruits are grown in California and Florida. 
The trees require about the same treatment as orange 
trees. The fruit is served as a first course, usually at 
breakfast. The citron is a large citrus fruit. The dried 
citron which we buy is the candied rind of this fruit. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What citrus fruits are raised in the United States? 

2. Where are the citrus regions of this country ? 

3. What climatic conditions are necessary for the growing 
of citrus fruits ? 

4. How are orange and lemon trees propagated ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. On boxes of citrus fruits in stores, look for the name of the 
place where the fruit is grown. 

2. Obtain samples of oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, and 
citrons ; and manufactured products of these fruits. 

3. Plant seeds of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits, and study 
the young plants of each. 

REFERENCES 

If you live in a citrus-growing state, write to the Agricultural 
College for bulletins on the growing of citrus fruits. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 171, Scale insects and mites on citrus 
trees ; 238, Citrus fruit growing in Gulf States. 



LESSON XL 
GRAPES 

The grapevine has been cultivated since early times 
for the wine which is made from the juice of the grape. 
In modern times we are using more and more of the 
grapes as raisins and fresh fruit. On nearly every farm 
in the United States, the grapevine is grown to supply 
the family with grapes "for table use and for canning 
and making jelly. In the greater part of the country 
grapes are grown only to supply the local demand. 
The Pacific states, the eastern and southern shores of 
the Great Lakes, and the South Atlantic and Gulf 
region are the three principal sections that raise grapes 
on a commercial scale. California is far ahead of any 
other state in the production of grapes. 

Varieties. — In the Pacific states the European 
varieties are almost exclusively grown. Varieties de- 
veloped from native American species and hybrids of 
European and American vines are grown in the Great 
Lakes region. In the southern section both the Euro- 
pean and American varieties are grown, but the Ameri- 
can vines are raised in greater number. The western 
vineyards produce grapes for table use, for raisins, and 
for wine. In the eastern part of the country the grapes 
are grown mainly for table use. The Chautauqua 

180 



GRAPES 



181 



district of western New York is an important center of 
grape juice manufacture. 

Propagation. — Grapevines are propagated from cut- 
tings, and by layering, budding, and grafting. In 
starting new varieties 
the seeds are planted. 

Soils. — The grape will 
thrive in a variety of 
soils. In northern 
United States the most 
important thing to con- 
sider in the location of 
vineyards is frost pre- 
vention. The vineyards 
are located near rivers 
or lakes and on slopes 
from which frosty air 
will flow down to lower 
levels. 

In California the 
grapes are grown in irri- 
gation districts and the 
vineyards are cultivated 
to secure the loose soil 
mulch which saves soil moisture. Some of the vine- 
yards are thousands of acres in extent. 

Raisins are produced only in the hottest part of the 
dry region. The raisin grapes have so much sugar in 
them that they are preserved by drying in the open air. 




Bunch of American Grapes 



182 



GRAPES 



The grapes are spread on large flat trays placed on the 
ground between the rows, and allowed to dry in the sun. 
Some of the raisins are packed with the seeds in them, 
while others are taken to a seeding mill where the seeds 
are taken out by machinery and the seeded raisins are 
then put in packages to be sold. 




Grape Culture 



A large amount of grape juice is now put up in bottles, 
so it will keep in the unfermented state. It is a re- 
freshing drink. 

Training the vines. — In the eastern part of the 
United States the vines are supported by stakes or by 
trellises of boards or wire. In the West in most of the 
vineyards a strong stumpy trunk of the vine is obtained 
by pruning, and the fruiting branches are supported 
by this trunk. 



GRAPES 183 

Pruning. — An important part of the work in raising 
grapes is the pruning of the vines. The old branches of 
the vine that have borne fruit are cut back, leaving only 
a short length with one or two buds which develop 
the fruiting branches or canes which bear fruit the 
following season. By pruning, the proper shape of the 
vine is secured and the quality of the grapes is improved. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Where are the important grape-growing sections of the 
United States ? 

2. What products are made from grapes ? 

3. What is the most important element of climate to be con- 
sidered in determining the proper site for a vineyard ? 

4. By what means are grapevines supported ? 

5. How are raisins manufactured ? 

6. What varieties of grapes are grown in the locality in which 
you live ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. In the fall after the leaves have fallen, cut off several 
twigs, six to twelve inches long, from a vigorous grapevine. Tie 
the twigs in a bundle and place them in a box of moist sand in 
a cool cellar and keep them through the winter. In the spring 
place the cuttings in mellow soil. Plant them a few inches 
apart and at such a depth that only the buds at the upper end 
are above ground. 

2. In the spring bend down a cane of a grapevine and fasten 
in a shallow trench of mellow soil. A cane near the ground and 
of the last season's growth should be selected. When shoots 
from the buds are well started rill the trench with soil. Roots 
will then form at the base of each shoot. In the following fall 



1 84 GRAPES 

take up the cane and cut it into parts so that each shoot 
and root system becomes a new plant. 



REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 118, Grape growing in the South; 156, 
Home vineyard with special reference to northern conditions; 
175, Home manufacture and use of unfermented grape juice; 
284, Insect and fungous enemies of grape east of the Rocky 
Mountains; 471, Grape propagation, pruning, and trimming. 



LESSON XLI 



SMALL FRUITS 




Picking Strawberries 

Berries and other small fruits are among the best 
things grown by the farmer and gardener. The most 
common small fruits are the strawberry, raspberry, 
blackberry, gooseberry, and currant. Nearly every 
farmer grows at least two or three of these fruits. 
The cranberry is grown in bogs or swamps where the 

185 



i86 



SMALL FRUITS 



plants are flooded with water during part of the time ; 
and the raising of cranberries is a special business. 
Huckleberries, blueberries, and June berries are gath- 




Strawberry Runner 

ered from wild bushes or trees, and as yet are little 

cultivated. 

The strawberry is 
grown in more parts 
of the world than any 
other fruit. It will 
grow in hot and cold 
climates, and on a va- 
riety of soils. It does 
best on rich, moist soil. 
Strawberries are propa- 
blackberries gated by transplanting 

the young plants which are formed on the runners of old 




SMALL FRUITS 



187 



plants. They are planted in hills or in rows. The 
rows are about three feet apart, and the plants in the 
rows from twelve to eighteen inches apart. They will 
yield a full crop of fruit the second season after they 
are planted. The strawberry bed should be replaced 
every three or four 
years, as the young 
plants produce the 
most and best ber- 
ries. Straw is used 
to mulch the plants 
in order to save 
moisture, prevent 
the growth of 
weeds, and keep 
the berries off the 
soil, so that they 
will be clean when 
picked. 

Raspb erries, 
blackberries, and 
dewberries are 
propagated from 
root sprouts or by 
layers. The red raspberry and the blackberry are 
started from the root sprouts, while the blackcap rasp- 
berry is started from layers. Layers are the tops of 
the branches or canes laid down and covered with soil 
until they take root, when they are cut off and set out 




Red and White Currants 



188 SMALL FRUITS 

as new plants. Raspberries and blackberries bear their 
fruit on second-year canes. The new canes which come 
up during any summer bear fruit the following summer. 
After fruiting, the old canes die and should be cut out 
as soon as the berry crop is harvested. There are many 
varieties of raspberries and blackberries and also hy- 
brids of these two plants. The loganberry is the most 
common hybrid of the raspberry and blackberry. 

Currants and gooseberries are among the easiest 
fruits to grow. They are very hardy and may be 
grown in any garden. They are propagated by cuttings 
of the two-year-old stems. They are set out about 
four feet apart each way; and if properly cultivated 
and pruned, they will bear fruit for many years. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What are the most common small fruits grown in the 
United States? 

2. What methods are used in growing strawberries? 

3. How are the red raspberry and the blackberry propagated ? 

4. What is the loganberry? 

5. What soil and moisture conditions are required by cran- 
berries ? 

6. How are new plants of currants and of gooseberries pro- 
duced ? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 154, Home fruit garden, preparation and 
care; 176, Cranberry culture; 178, Insects injurious in cran- 
berry culture ; 198, Strawberries ; 203, Canned fruit, preserves, 
and jellies, household methods of preparation. 



LESSON XLII 

NUTS 

Kind of nuts. — Nearly all persons eat nuts as luxuries, 
either in the natural state, or roasted, or in candies ; 
and many people use them as regular articles of food. 
Hickory nuts, walnuts, butternuts, chestnuts, hazel- 
nuts, beechnuts, and pinon nuts are common examples 




i, Black Walnut. 2, Beechnut. 3, Almond. 4, Peanut. 5, English Walnut 

of American wild nuts. The pinon nuts are the large 
seeds in the cones of the pinon pines of southwestern 
United States. Chestnut trees are cultivated on some 
farms, but in Italy and other countries of southern 
Europe chestnuts are an important crop. In these 
countries they are roasted, or ground into flour and 
used to make bread. Chestnuts from these countries 
are shipped to the United States. There are three 

189 



190 



NUTS 



kinds of walnuts: the black walnut, white walnut, or 
butternut, and the Persian or English walnuts. 

Nut trees that are grown on a large scale are 
the English walnut, almond, and pecan. English 
walnuts and almonds are raised extensively in Cali- 
fornia. There are two kinds of almonds; bitter al- 
monds, used for bitter almond oil, and the sweet almond, 
used as an edible nut. The pecan is a kind of hickory 
nut that is grown on a commercial scale in the South. 




i, Butternut. 2, Chestnut. 3, Hazelnut. 4, Hickory Nut. 5, Pecan 



Large pecan orchards are planted in Texas, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and the South Atlantic states. The nuts 
are large and have thin shells called paper shells. 

Peanuts are the most common and cheapest nuts 
found in the market. They are grown principally in 
the South, but the Spanish peanut may be ripened in 
the northern states if given proper care. The small, 
Spanish peanut gives the largest yields, and it grows 
in the form of a bush pea, instead of having trailing 
vines. They are usually shelled and sold as salted 



NUTS 



191 



peanuts. They yield from forty to more than one hun- 
dred bushels per acre. 

Planting. — 
The shelled 
nuts or the 
seeds left in 
the shell are 
planted in the 
spring. The 




soil is plowed and 
harrowed to make a 

, 1111 Peanut Plant 

loose seed bed, and 

the seeds are planted about two inches deep and ten or 
twelve inches apart in the rows. They are cultivated 
to keep the ground loose and to kill weeds. 

Harvesting. — In the fall they are harvested by plow- 
ing up the nuts and then throwing the vines and nuts 
in piles. These piles are made by stacking the plants 
around stakes driven into the ground. In these stacks, 
which are about two feet across and five feet high, 
the nuts and vines are dried and cured. They are 
then hauled to some spot in the field or to a shed where 
the nuts are picked off the vines by hand or machine. 



192 



NUTS 



As they may have particles of soil sticking to them, 
the nuts are run through polishing machines that clean 
and brighten them before they are placed in sacks for 
market. 

Uses. — The peanut crop has many uses. The 
plants are used for hay, which is about equal to clover 
hay in food value. The whole plants or the vines after 
the nuts are picked are fed to stock. They are some- 
times used to feed hogs by letting the animals root the 
nuts out of the ground. 

Roasting. — In this country the peanuts are roasted 
before they are eaten, though some people like them 
raw. Many peanuts are shelled by machinery and are 
used for making salted peanuts. Peanut oil is used 
like olive oil, and after the oil has been pressed from the 
nuts, the peanut cake is used to feed stock. Peanuts 
are also used to make peanut butter. 

Rotation. — Peanuts are leguminous plants, closely 
related to the peas and beans. Like other legumes, 
this crop gathers nitrogen in the roots, and is becoming 
an important rotation crop for nuts, forage, and soil 
improvement. Peanuts will grow in almost any soil, 
but light-colored soils are preferred, as dark soils are apt 
to stain the hulls. 

QUESTIONS 

1 . What kinds of trees yield nuts that are used as food ? 

2. What nut trees are grown on a commercial scale? 

3. What are pecans? 



NUTS 1 93 

4. What methods are used in raising peanuts? 

5. What uses are made of a peanut crop ? 



PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Make a collection of all the edible nuts growing on trees in 
your locality. Make also a collection of other nuts that may 
be found in the markets. 

2. Plant several unroasted peanuts and study the growth of 
the young plants. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 332, Nuts and their uses as food; 431, 
The peanut. 



B. AND D. AG. — 1 3 



LESSON XLIII 
FORESTRY 

t 

Forests. — The forest lands of the United States 
consist of many small woodlots on farms, and extensive 
forests owned by lumber companies or by the states 
or the national government. Most of the large forest 
areas to-day are located in the Appalachian, Rocky, 
Cascade, and Sierra Nevada mountains, and in the 
Great Lakes region and the coastal plain of the southern 
states. The farm woodlots are remnants of the former 
forest or are new forests set out by the farmers. 

Windbreaks. - On the prairies small groves are 
planted on the windward side of farm buildings for 
protection against the cold winds of winter and the 
destructive winds of summer. These groves also give 
shade and beauty to the homesteads. Narrow belts 
of trees are planted also along the windward side of 
farms to protect the crops against wind. Sometimes 
groves are planted on the prairies with rapid-growing 
trees to furnish a supply of fuel, poles, and posts. The 
hardy catalpa has been most extensively planted for 
this purpose. 

Effect on water supply. — Forests on mountain slopes 
prevent the rapid flow of surface water in times of 
heavy rainfall, by holding much of the rain in the spongy 

194 



FORESTRY 



195 



mass of leaves and humus on the forest floor. This 
water gradually sinks into the ground, and weeks and 
months later it appears in springs that flow into the 
streams. In this way floods are reduced and a greater 
flow of water ob- 
tained in the dry 
months of the year. 
These forests also 
protect winter 
snows from melt- 
ing rapidly in the 
spring, and thus 
the flow of streams 
is made more 
regular. 

National forests. 
— In order to con- 
serve the water for 
power and irriga- 
tion the national 
government has 
formed large Na- 
tional Forests in 
the western states. 
These forests occupy public lands, and thus are the 
property of all the people of the United States. Not 
only will these forests regulate the flow of water for 
power and irrigation, but they will be important sources 
of lumber and other forest products. 



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Forests prevent the Rapid Flow of Water 
during Heavy Rainfall 



1 96 FORESTRY 

Improving the stand. — In the millions of farm wood 
lots the farmers can do very important work in forestry 
by improving the stand of trees. Diseased trees 
and species of little value should be cut down and 
replaced by trees of high value. Each wood lot should 
also carry a full stand of trees. In order to im- 
prove the wood lots the farmers should know the lead- 
ing species of timber trees, the uses of each species, 
the market demands, the best methods of dealing with 
diseases and insects that attack forest trees, the effect 
of grazing upon the wood lot, and the best methods of 
growing and transplanting young trees. 

Arbor Day. — In order to encourage tree planting 
and arouse an interest in the general problems of for- 
estry, many states have selected one day in the fall or 
spring as Arbor Day and made it either a legal holiday 
or a school holiday. While much good work has been 
done on Arbor Day, yet in the whole country millions 
of young trees set out on this day have died because 
the work was done so poorly. Since the planting of 
young trees is practical work in forestry, the pupils 
should do it so well that the trees will continue to grow 
after planting. 

QUESTIONS 

i. Where are the great forest areas of the United States? 

2. For what purposes are trees planted in the prairie region 
of the United States? 

3. How do forests lessen floods ? 

4. Of what service are forests to irrigation ? 



FORESTRY 197 

5. What are the uses of the National Forests? 

6. What can be done to improve the farm wood lot? 

7. What are some of the most common shade trees? 

8. What trees make good fence posts ? 

9. What trees may be propagated by planting cuttings ? 
10. What places in your locality should be devoted to the 

growing of trees ? Why ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Make a list of all the trees that grow in your locality. 

2. Collect specimens of sawed pieces of wood. 

3. Collect twigs of the various species of trees. Fasten the 
twigs to sheets of cardboard and label properly. 

4. Collect seeds of many trees. Keep them in bottles or 
small glass jars. What trees have winged seeds? What trees 
have seeds inclosed in cones ? 

5. In the early fall collect leaves of forest trees. Place the 
leaves between sheets of blotting paper or carpet paper, and 
keep under several pounds pressure until they are dry. Then 
mount them on sheets of stiff paper. On each sheet give the 
name of the tree to which the leaves belong, and the place and 
kind of ground in which the tree grew. Ask your teacher for 
full directions for collecting, drying, and mounting leaves. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 67, Forestry for farmers; 99, Three in- 
sect enemies of shade trees ; 134, Tree planting on rural school 
grounds ; 173, Primer of forestry, pt. 1 ; 358, Primer of forestry, 
pt. 2 ; 228, Forest planting and farm management; 387, Pre- 
servative treatment of farm timbers; 421, Control of blowing 
soils ; 423, Forest nurseries for schools ; 468, Forestry in nature 
study ; 476, The dying of pine in the Southern States : cause, 
extent, and remedy. 



LESSON XLIV 



WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 

Weeds are plants that grow where they are not 
wanted. The farmer tills the soil, plants the seed, and 

adds fertilizers for the use- 
ful crop he expects to 
grow. Then the unwel- 
come weeds come to rob 
the soil of the needed 
moisture and fertility. 
The farmer tries to de- 
stroy them by soil tillage, 
but year after year weeds 
still infest the fields. 

Value of weeds. — Some 
people consider weeds use- 
ful because they make it 
necessary for the farmer 
to cultivate his crops in 
order to kill the weeds. 
Sometimes, however, the 
stirring of the soil for the necessary destruction of 
weeds has to be done at a time when it is not best for 

198 




Smut on Corn 



WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 



199 



the crop. Hence, the wisest plan is not to have the 
weeds. Those that do grow should not be allowed 
to go to seed ; and great care should be taken not to 
plant weeds with the seeds of the crop. 

Weeds and rotation. — The system of cultivation 
and rotation, the kinds of crops raised, and the time 
of planting and har- 
vesting may be partly 
determined by the 
presence of weeds. 
The farmer who prac- 
tices the right system 
never worries about 
weeds, for he can usu- 
ally control them with- 
out much difficulty. 
Some crops, as millet, 
for example, may be 
planted so early and 
may grow so quickly 
that the weeds do not 
get a chance. Alfalfa, 

which grows rapidly and is cut several times a year, 
will keep the land free from almost all kinds of weeds. 
This is especially true after the first year. 

Kinds of weeds. — There are many kinds of weeds. 
Ragweeds, cockleburs, purslane, Canada thistles, dan- 
delions, wild mustard, sorrel, dodder, and jimson weeds 
are a few of the most common species. What other 




Smut on Wheat 



200 



WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 



kinds can you name? What is the most troublesome 
weed in the vicinity in which you live ? 

Plant diseases. — Cultivated plants are subject to 
many diseases, nearly all of which are due to bacteria 
or fungi. Wheat rust is a disease caused by fungi that 

live on the wheat and pene- 
trate into the living tissues of 
the plant. The rust particles 
are the spores of the fungi. 
Pear blight is due to bacteria 
in the sap of the tree. The 
farmer must do many things 
to keep his plants healthy. 
Some of the smuts on grain 
may be prevented by treating 
the seeds with chemicals that 
destroy the spores of the fungi 
that cause the smuts. When 
fungi grow on leaves or fruit, 
as in the case of leaf blights 
and the apple scab, spraying 
with chemicals will kill the fungous growth. When 
the disease is due to bacteria in the sap, like pear or 
apple blight or the bacterial disease of squash vines, 
the only thing that can be done is to destroy the 
diseased plants, in order to prevent the spread of the 
disease. 

One of the best ways of controlling plant diseases 
is breeding for the production of disease resistance. 




Smut on Oats 



WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 201 

In this way plants may be obtained that are immune 
from certain diseases. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What is a weed? 

2. What are the most common weeds in your locality? 
Which of these are regarded as the worst pests ? 

3. In what ways are weed seeds carried from place to place? 

4. What are some of the most common plant diseases? 

5. What methods are used to destroy or prevent plant dis- 
eases ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Dig up a burdock in order to study the whole plant. 
Examine the leaves and the roots. Do grazing animals eat 
the leaves ? Does cutting off the stem at the top of the ground 
kill the plant ? How are the seeds distributed ? 

2. Make a study of the dandelion. Count the number of 
seeds in a ripe dandelion head. Through how many months 
of a year do dandelions bloom ? How are the seeds distributed ? 
Where are the leaves placed? Dig up several plants and 
examine the roots. What advantages have dandelions that 
make them persistent weeds ? 

3. Collect the seeds of a large number of weeds and keep them 
in small bottles. 

4. Bring to school specimens of plants with such diseases as 
potato scab, smuts of grain crops, pear blight, downy mildew 
of the grape, peach leaf curl, apple scab, apple rust, brown rot 
of the peach, black knot of the cherry and plum, " pod spots 
of beans, etc. 

5. Kill the smut spores that may be present in seed oats 
by the use of formaldehyde. In a barrel place 40 gallons of 
water and add one pint of formaldehyde of standard strength 



202 WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 

(40 per cent). This will be enough to treat 40 bushels of oats. 
On a clean floor spread the grain to a depth of about six inches. 
Sprinkle the formaldehyde solution over the grain and mix 
thoroughly with a scoop shovel until all the grain is moistened. 
Then shovel the grain into a pile and cover it with sacks, blan- 
kets, or canvas, and leave for eight or ten hours. If this work 
is done in the evening, the grain can be left in the pile over 
night and sown the next day. If a drill is used, the grain should 
be spread out and dried before sowing. If sacks are used to 
hold the grain, they should be well moistened with the solution. 
For experimental purposes a small amount of oats can be 
treated with a proportionately small quantity of the formalde- 
hyde solution. Sow the treated grain in a small plot of ground, 
and in another plot a considerable distance away sow untreated 
grain. When the oats are nearly ripe, look for smut in the plots. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 28, Weeds, and how to kill them ; 86, 
Thirty poisonous plants of United States; 219, Lessons from 
the grain-rust epidemic of 1904; 221, Fungous diseases of the 
cranberry ; 243, Fungicides and their use in preventing diseases 
of fruits; 250, Prevention of stinking smut of wheat and loose 
smut of oats ; 368, Eradication of bindweed, or wild morning- 
glory ; 489, Two dangerous imported plant diseases. 



LESSON XLV 
MIXED FARMING 

Mixed farming is the raising of crops and live stock 
on the same farm. Some kinds of animals are kept on 
nearly all farms. Horses and mules are used for work, 
cattle for beef and milk, hogs for pork, sheep for mutton 
and wool, and poultry for eggs and meat. 

Advantages. — There are many advantages in rais- 
ing live stock on the farm in connection with growing 
crops. Plants require organic matter in the soil as 
well as mineral matter, and if crops alone are raised 
and sold off the farm, there can be very little return of 
organic matter to the soil. If the plants that are 
raised on the farm are fed to stock, a large amount of 
organic matter in the form of manure is returned to 
the soil and thus the farm keeps up in fertility. It has 
been observed that live-stock farmers are nearly always 
prosperous. 

There is another advantage in raising animals and 
crops on the farm. Animals must be cared for every 
day, but they require more attention in the winter 
than in the summer. During the summer season the 
labor is put on the fields to produce the crops ; and in 

203 



204 MIXED FARMING 

the winter season the labor is used to feed the animals, 
milk the cows, and give other needed attention. If 
crops alone are raised, there is an excess of work 
during the summer and too little labor during the 
winter. In order to support the animals a considerable 
acreage must be put in grass, hay, or other forage 
crops ; and so there will be a rotation of crops that 
will help to keep the soil fertile. 

Feeders. — Many farmers use all their land for the 
production of crops in the summer, and then buy 
" feeders " for winter feeding. The name " feeders ' 
is given to animals that are sold to the farmers to be 
fattened for the market. In some parts of the country 
the feeding of cattle and sheep has become an important 
industry. Many of these animals are bought from 
the grazing sections of the country and then well fed 
with grain and hay until they are ready for the market. 
A farmer with 80 or 160 acres of land with a good part 
of it in clover or alfalfa will buy a large number of lambs, 
older sheep, or cattle ; and if he does not have enough 
grain to feed with the hay, he buys corn, or other 
grain or mill stuffs. Sheep will usually get fat enough 
for market in three or four months' time. Beef cattle 
are usually fed five or six months before marketing. 
This kind of farming enables the farmer to dispose of 
his hay and grain by feeding it on his own farm, sup- 
plies a large amount of manure for his fields, and fur- 
nishes a pleasant and profitable work through the win- 
ter months, when, otherwise, he would be idle. 



MIXED FARMING 205 

QUESTIONS 

i. What is meant by the term " mixed farming " ? 

2. What are some of the disadvantages of raising only crops 
on a farm ? 

3. How does the raising of farm animals help to maintain 
soil fertility? 

4. How does the raising of crops and animals affect the dis- 
tribution of farm labor through the year ? 

5. In your locality what crops are mainly disposed of by 
feeding to animals on the farm where the crops are grown? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 192, Barnyard manure; 242, Example 
of model farming; 272, Successful hog and seed-corn farm; 
299, Diversified farming under plantation system; 310, Suc- 
cessful Alabama diversification farm. 



LESSON XLVI 
HORSES 

A faithful friend. — The horse is man's noblest friend 
among the farm animals. He is the main source of 
power for the pulling of farm machinery, the hauling 
of loads, and the transportation of people, and is al- 
most indispensable on any farm. The horse has such 
power and endurance, is so easily trained and controlled, 
and possesses such useful traits that no other animal 
or power can take his place. If one becomes lost in 
a wilderness or in the darkness of night, a faithful 
horse may be depended upon to lead the way to safety, 
if allowed to go the way he chooses, for the horse never 
becomes " turned around " or gets lost. 

A source of power. — In factories the energy that 
runs the machinery comes mainly from steam power 
and water power. On farms most of the heavy work 
is done by horses. Almost every farmer must have one 
or more teams of horses to do the plowing, harrowing, 
harvesting, and the hauling of farm products to mar- 
ket. In the cities also most of the local transportation 
of goods is done by horses. 

Much grain and hay required. — The use of horses 
for riding, driving, and pulling heavy loads requires 
the growing of large forage and grain crops to feed these 

206 



HORSES 



207 




w 

« 

H 

ft 

O 

C/i 

w 

I— I 



208 



HORSES 




Shetland Pony 



animals. In the cities the millions of horses create 
a considerable market for hay and grain. 

Breeds. — Horses 
have been domesti- 
cated and used by man 
for many centuries ; 
and many kinds of 
horses have been de- 
veloped for different 
purposes. There are 
four general classes of 
horses, — ponies, light horses for racing and riding, 
carriage horses, and draft horses. To the many well- 
known breeds should be added a large class of medium- 
weight horses of no particular breed, which are most 
used on American farms. 

The Shetland and Iceland ponies are used as pets 
for children. The 
mustang, Indian 
pony, and cow pony 
are used extensively 
in herding. The 
principal breeds of 
light horses are 
the Thoroughbred, 
American trotting 
horse, Kentucky sad- 
dle horse, and light, general purpose breeds, as the 
Hambletonian and Morgan horses. The principal 




Carriage Horse 



HORSES 



209 



breeds of carriage horses are the French Coach ; Ger- 
man Coach ; and English Coach, such as the Hackney 
and Cleveland Bay. The principal breeds of draft 
horses are the Percheron from France, the Belgian from 
Belgium, and the 
Shire, Clydesdale, 
and SufTold Punch 
from Great Britain. 

Length of service. 
— Horses are old 
enough to be useful 
at the age of three 
years ; and if well 
cared for, they will 
continue to be of 
service until they are twenty or more years old. When 
they reach the working age, they are broken or put 
through a course of training which fits them for the 
work they must do. 

The mule, which is a cross between the horse and 
the donkey, is used as a draft animal. It is able to 
pull very heavy loads and endure other hard conditions 
of life. 




Draft Horse 



QUESTIONS 



i. What animals are used for power purposes? 

2. What qualities make the horse so valuable as a draft 



animal ? 



o- 



What are the four general classes of horses? 



B. AND D. AG. 



14 



210 HORSES 

4. What are some of the leading breeds of each class ? What 
breeds are raised in your locality? 

5. What qualities make the mule a valuable draft animal? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Obtain from the Agricultural College of your state score 
cards for judging horses. Get a farmer who is a good judge of 
horses to help you in this work. (It will not be possible for 
many schools to make the judging of horses and other animals 
a part of the regular school work ; but by securing the aid of 
farmers who are good judges of farm animals some useful study 
of these animals can be made.) 

REFERENCES 

Write to the Agricultural College of your state for bulletins 
on horses and other farm animals. 

Farmers' Bulletins: 170, Principles of horse feeding; 179, 
Horseshoeing. 

Selected Readings : The Arab to his Favorite Steed, — 
Caroline Norton; The Blood Horse, — Bryan Waller Proctor; 
Black Beauty, — Anna Sewell; The Horse Fair, — James 
Baldwin ; Kentucky Belle, — Constance F. Woolson. 



LESSON XLVII 



CATTLE 

Main uses. — Cattle are raised mainly for meat and 
milk. In a few places they are still used as draft 
animals. They are raised on nearly every farm, and 




Cattle on Range 



in the West great herds of cattle pasture on the wild 
grasses of the open range. Many people in towns and 
villages keep one or more cows to supply milk, cream, 
and butter. 



211 



212 



CATTLE 





Ayrshire 



Guernsey 




Galloway 




Jersey 
















n 


mil liUJlB. jfflf «£..ai 











Shorthorn 



Hereford 



Different Breeds of Cows 



CATTLE 



213 




Beef cattle are raised for meat. Some of the prin- 
cipal breeds of beef cattle are Shorthorns, Herefords, 
Polled Angus, and Galloways. Dairy cattle are raised 
for milk. The Jerseys, Guernseys, Holsteins, Ayr- 
shires, and Swiss 
are some of the 
leading breeds of 
this class. The 
general purpose 
cattle are used for 
both meat and 
milk. The Devons 
and the Red Polled 



A Clean Dairy makes 
Clean Milk 

cattle belong to this 
class. In the west- 
ern grazing states 
the beef breeds are 
raised almost ex- 
clusively. In graz- 
ing districts near 
our large cities, in 
the central and eastern sections of the United States, 
the dairy breeds are kept in large numbers. In the 
general farming districts the greatest number of cattle 
belong to the beef-and-dairy types. 

Feeds. — Cattle eat pasture grass, hay, and grain. 




Clean Milk makes Good Butter 



214 CATTLE 

Cows that give milk are given feeds rich in protein, 
while beef cattle are fed corn or other grain that con- 
tains a good deal of starch and sugar in it. During 
the growing season cattle should have green pastures 
to graze, or should be fed succulent plant's or soiling 
crops, such as green clover, alfalfa, and corn. In win- 
ter they may be fed corn silage or root crops along with 
hay and grain. Corn silage is one of the most important 
winter feeds for milk cows. 

Dairy products. — Milk, and the cream, butter, and 
cheese which are made from milk, are called dairy prod- 
ucts ; and they are used so extensively that the dairy 
business is a very important industry. 

Other products. — Enormous quantities of beef are 
used as food, and millions of cattle are slaughtered 
and converted into beef in the great packing houses 
of our large cities. The skins or hides of cattle are 
tanned into leather, which is used to make gloves, 
boots and shoes, and harness. Sometimes the skins 
with the hair attached are tanned into robes and over- 
coats. The skins of Galloway cattle, because of their 
curly hair, are often used for this purpose. The hair 
is used in the making of plaster ; the horns and hoofs 
are used in making glue and gelatin ; and the bones, 
blood, and other wastes are used in making commercial 
fertilizers. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What are some of the leading breeds of beef cattle? Of 
dairy cattle ? 



CATTLE 215 

2. What breeds of cattle are raised on the farms in your 
locality ? 

3. What are the leading products obtained from cattle? 

4. Under what conditions are dairy cattle more profitable 
than beef cattle? 

5. What farm products are used for the winter feeding of 
cattle ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. If possible, visit a factory that manufactures one or more 
dairy products. Study the machinery and methods used in 
the making of the products. 

2. Obtain from the Agricultural College of your state score 
cards for judging dairy cattle and beef cattle, and get a farmer 
who is a good judge of cattle to help you judge a dairy cow and 
a fat steer. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 55, Dairy herd, its formation and manage- 
ment ; 71, Some essentials in beef production; 151, Dairying 
in the South; 152, Scabies of cattle; 166, Cheese making on 
the farm ; 206, Milk fever, its simple and successful treatment ; 
241, Butter making on the farm; 258, Texas or tick fever and 
its prevention ; 261, Cattle tick in its relation to Southern agri- 
culture ; 280, Profitable tenant dairy farm ; 348, Bacteria in 
milk; 349, Dairy industry in the South; 350, Dehorning of 
cattle; 351, Tuberculin test of cattle for tuberculosis; 439, 
Anthrax, with special reference to its suppression ; 473, Tuber- 
culosis ; 498, Methods of exterminating the Texas-fever tick. 



LESSON XL VIII 
SHEEP AND GOATS 

An ancient industry. - - For ages the herding of sheep 
has been an important industry. Before man began 
to till the soil, the shepherds tended their flocks in 
mountain pastures, and in dry lands where sheep were 
the only animals that could live on the scanty pas- 
turage. The shepherds watching their flocks by night 
on the Judean hills are closely associated with the 
greatest event in Biblical history. One of the most 
beautiful bits of literature is the Twenty-third Psalm, 
which expresses, in terms of the shepherd and the sheep, 
faith in Divine care. 

Uses. — Sheep are raised for wool and meat ; and 
the two general classes of sheep are the mutton breeds 
and the wool breeds. The wool breeds have been de- 
veloped mainly for wool production. The Merinos 
are fine-wool sheep ; the Shropshire Downs, Oxford 
Downs, and other Downs are medium-wool sheep ; 
and the Cotswold, Lincoln, Cheviot, and Leicester 
breeds are long-wool sheep. The Down breeds are 
also good mutton sheep. The Horned Dor sets are 
raised principally for the meat of the lambs ; the Lin- 
coln and Cotswold breeds are also good mutton types. 

216 



SHEEP AND GOATS 



217 




■ 



/£EX 




Shropshire 



Hampshire Down Ram 





Oxford Down Ram 



Cheviot Ram 





Southdown Ram 



Lincoln Ram 



Different Breeds of Sheep 



21.8 



SHEEP AND GOATS 



Wool is the most important of all animal fibers, and 
is used extensively in the manufacture of cloth and 




j<^ "Jh. 



Shearing Sheep 

carpets. The wool is sheared from the sheep in late 
spring or early summer. On many farms the sheep are 
washed before shearing; but on the ranges of the West- 
ern states, the wool is clipped without washing, and is 
sent to wool-scouring mills. In the woolen mills it is 
woven into cloth for clothing, blankets, and other woven 
goods. The coarsest wool is used to make carpets, 
and the fibers not good for spinning are made into felt 
hats and felt boots. The skins of sheep are used to 
make many kinds of soft leather. 

Mutton and lamb. — By many people, mutton is 
regarded as a choice meat. Fat lamb is especially 



SHEEP AND GOATS 



219 



prized, and many thousands of lambs are used each 
year for this purpose. Lambs make more meat for 
the amount of food eaten than any other animal. 
The meat is also fatter than that of other animals. 

Feed. — Sheep will eat a great variety of feed. Their 
small mouths and good teeth enable them to bite closer 
to the ground, and thus to live on shorter grasses than 
other farm animals. They will eat the leaves and buds 
of a large number of shrubs and other coarse plants. 
They may be fattened for market by feeding hay and 
silage, or corn or other grains, or peas and other legumes. 




Sheep Grazing 



Root crops, such as turnips and sugar beets, are good 
food for sheep. 

Shelter. — In keeping sheep through the winter it 



220 



SHEEP AND GOATS 



is important to have them sheltered in dry places that 
are not too warm. The sheep kept through the winter 
are mainly breeding ewes, and it is important that they 
shall not be overfed. Their food should be muscle- 
forming rather than fattening. 

Goats. — In many parts of the world goats are 
raised on a large scale for milk, meat, and the fleece, 

called mohair. The milk goat 
has been called " the poor 
man's cow." Good milk 
goats will give from four to six 
quarts of milk per day, and, 
considering their size, the 
yield is greater than that from 
cows. The milk is considered 
more healthful than cow's 
milk and is used to feed 
young children. 
In the United States goats are not raised extensively, 
except in a few Southern and Western states. In most 
localities no goats are seen, except an occasional pet 
harnessed to a boy's wagon. Texas, New Mexico, 
and Arizona lead the states in the number of goats. 

Angora goats. — Most of the goats raised for com- 
mercial purposes are Angora goats, a breed that orig- 
inated in Asia Minor. These animals are kept to 
furnish meat, skins, and the long, silky mohair. They 
will eat coarse weeds, and the leaves and twigs of bushes. 
This browsing habit makes them useful in cleaning 




Angora Goat 



SHEEP AND GOATS 221 

pastures that are overgrown with brush and weeds. 
In the South and West, where the climate is hot, the 
Angoras are sheared twice each year, in the spring and 
fall. In the Northern states they are sheared only in 
the spring. The mohair is used to make cloth, plush, 
and carpets. Much of the plush used on upholstered 
furniture and car seats is made of mohair. The skins, 
when tanned with the white, silky hair on them, make 
beautiful rugs and lap robes. 

QUESTIONS 

1 . What are the two main classes of sheep ? 

2. What are some of the leading breeds of each class? 

3. What are the leading sheep-raising states of the United 
States? (See Yearbook of Agriculture.) 

4. What products are obtained from sheep? 

5. What products are obtained from goats ? 

6. What are the leading goat-raising states? 

7. Why is the extensive raising of sheep and goats generally 
confined to rugged sections of a country? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 49, Sheep feeding ; 96, Raising sheep for 
mutton ; 137, Angora goat ; 159, Scab in sheep. 



LESSON XLIX 



SWINE 



Raised for meat. — Swine, or hogs, as they are com- 
monly called, are the only farm animals that are raised 
primarily for meat. Corn is so largely used to feed 
hogs that the abundance of corn in the United States 
makes this country the leading swine-producing coun- 
try in the world. The corn belt of the United States 
is also the swine section of the country. 

Variety of feeds. 
— Although corn is 
used almost exclu- 
sively to fatten 
hogs for market, 
yet these animals 
will eat roots, tu- 
bers, grubs, snakes, 
nuts, grains, alfalfa, 
green grass, fruits, 
and many kinds of 
kitchen wastes. They will pick up scattered peas, 
grains, or other seeds which may be left scattered in 
fields or where other stock are fed. They are the only 
farm animals that can dig into the soil for food. They 

222 




Pigs Feeding 



SWINE 



223 



have shovel-shaped noses with 
which they dig up the ground 
and gather such things as wild 
roots, potatoes, artichokes, 
peanuts, and other under- 
ground foods. Because they 
can eat such a variety of feeds 
they may often be kept at 
little cost, and they are some- 
times called the " economy 
animals " of the farm. 

Classes of swine. — There 
are two classes of swine, — - the 
bacon hog and the lard hog. 
The difference between these 
two classes seems to have 
been produced by differences 
in food. The Yorkshire and 
Tamworth breeds, which came 
from England, are bacon hogs. 
The principal lard hogs are the 
Poland-China, Duroc Jersey, 
Chester White, and Essex. 
The Berkshire, which came 
from England, is a lard type 
of hog when fed on fattening 
foods, but is intermediate when 
fed on food that has less carbo- 
hydrates and more protein in it. 




Tamworth 




Poland-China 




Chester White 




Duroc Jersey 
Breeds of Swine 



224 SWINE 

Pork constitutes a large part of our flesh foods. 
The cured meat keeps for a long time, and is easily 
handled and shipped. The fat of hogs is made into 
lard which is largely used in cooking. The skins are 
sometimes tanned into leather, and the hair is used for 
bristles to make brushes. 

In raising hogs it should be remembered that, in 
addition to proper foods, pure water and clean quarters 
are necessary to success. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What is the chief food of hogs? What other farm prod- 
ucts are used as food for these animals ? 

2. What are the two main classes of hogs? Name two or 
more breeds of each class. 

3. What products are obtained from hogs? 

4. What are the leading hog-raising states of the United 
States? (See Yearbook of Agriculture.) Compare this list 
of states with that of the leading corn states. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 100, Hog raising in the South; 205, 
Pig management; 331, Forage crops for hogs in Kansas and 
Oklahoma ; 379, Hog cholera ; 411, Feeding hogs in the South ; 
438, Hog houses. 



LESSON L 
POULTRY 

A product of most farms. — On almost every farm 
one or more kinds of poultry are raised ; and there are 
some large farms whose entire product consists of eggs 
and fowls. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, peacocks, 
guinea fowls, pheasants, and other birds raised for eggs, 
meat, or feathers are called poultry. Even the large 
ostriches which are kept for their beautiful feathers 
may be regarded as poultry. 

Eggs. — Chickens form about 95 per cent of the 
poultry of the United States, and their eggs are the 
leading poultry product. The eggs of turkeys, ducks, 
and geese are sometimes used for food, but chickens 
lay more and better eggs than other fowls, and so we 
seldom find any but hen's eggs in the market. 

Breeds of chickens. — There are many breeds and 
varieties of chickens. Some breeds, like the Leghorns 
and Minorcas, are raised chiefly for their eggs ; while 
others, like the Brahmas and Cochins, are raised prin- 
cipally for their meat. The Plymouth Rocks, Wyan- 
dottes, and Rhode Island Reds are American breeds 
of general-purpose chickens, valuable for both eggs 
and meat. There are some fancy breeds, like the 
Bantams, that have little practical use. 

B. AND D. AG. — 15 225 



226 



POULTRY 





Barred Plymouth Rocks 



Rose-comb Brown Leghorns 




s- •■• -as 

Rose-comb Black Minorcas 




American Dominlques 




Mottled Javas 



Dark Brahmas 



Breeds of Chickens 



POULTRY 



227 




Turkeys 



The turkey is one of the finest meat birds in the 
world. In our country the turkey dinner at Thanks- 
giving time is one of the 
important events of the 
year. These birds are 
of American origin, and 
the wild turkey is still 
found in parts of the 
United States. 

Ducks and geese are 
raised for their meat 
and feathers. They are 

called water fowls, because they have web feet and 
swim in the water. They may be successfully raised, 
however, on farms without ponds or streams. 

Pigeons are raised for pets and for food. A full- 
grown, young pigeon ready for the table is called a 
squab. Near cities 
the raising of squabs 
is an important line 
of the poultry busi- 
ness. 

Poultry raising is 
light work that may 
be done by women 
or children. There 
is always a good 
market for the products, and poultry are often the 
most profitable animals on the farm. 




Ducks 



228 POULTRY 



QUESTIONS 



i. What birds are included in the term " poultry " ? 

2. What are the three general classes of chickens? 

3. What breeds are raised mainly for eggs? What breeds 
for meat? What breeds are general-purpose chickens? 

4. What breeds are raised in the locality in which you live? 
What breeds do you know? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 51, Standard varieties of chickens; 64, 
Ducks and geese ; 128, Eggs and their uses as food ; 177, Squab 
raising; 182, Poultry as food; 234, Guinea fowl and its use as 
food; 236, Incubation and incubators; 287, Poultry manage- 
ment; 355, Successful poultry and dairy farm; 357, Methods 
of poultry management at Maine Agricultural Experiment 
Station ; 452, Capons and caponizing. 



LESSON LI 
INSECTS 

Honey and silk. — Of the thousands of species of 
insects, only the bees and silkworms have been domes- 
ticated for man's use. Bees are raised for the honey 
and wax that they produce ; and silkworms, for the 
silk fibers that are woven into beautiful cloth. 

The silkworm lives on the leaves of the mulberry 
tree, and silkworm farming is carried on in regions 
where these trees grow. The silkworm moth lays 
eggs in the summer or fall, which hatch the following 
spring. The worms are fed on mulberry leaves until 
they spin the cocoons from which we get the silk fibers. 

Bee culture is one of the most interesting kinds of 
farming. It is said that more books have been written 
about bee keeping than about any other branch of 
farming. Bees are social insects that live together in 
swarms. Each hive or swarm consists of a queen bee 
which is the head of the swarm, the workers or bees 
that gather the honey, and the drones that do not 
gather honey. The queen bee lays the eggs in cells 
made of wax by the workers. In other cells of wax 
the workers store up honey which is made from the 
nectar of flowers. The hives now used are made of 

229 



230 



INSECTS 




i, Silkworm Eggs 

2, Fourth Stage Worm 

3, Pupa in Cocoon 

4, Cocoon 



5, Male Moth 

6, Female Moth 

7, Unspun Silk 

8, Woven Silk 



INSECTS 



231 



lumber and have two or more stories in them. In the 
lower story the eggs are laid and the young bees raised, 




Worker 




Queen Bee 




Drone 



while in the upper story the honey is stored. Some- 
times the bees in a single hive gather more than 200 




Bee Farming 



232 



INSECTS 






(3) rm 



Male and Female Cattle Ticks 

(Natural Size) 



pounds of honey in a season, in addition to that which 
they need as food for themselves during the winter. 

Many men, women, and 
children like to tend bees, 
finding it both pleasant and 
profitable work. 

Destructive insects. — 
Many insects cause great 
loss by destroying crops, 
absorbing vitality from ani- 
mals, and spreading diseases 
among animals and people ; 
and the destruction or prevention of insect enemies is 
a very important part of farm practice. 

We get an idea of the enormous loss caused by in- 
sects when we see the damage done by the Colorado 
potato beetle, cutworm, Hessian fly, cotton boll- 
weevil, apple worm, scale insects, and the caterpillars 
of the brown-tail and gypsy moths. Blood-sucking 
insects are not only trouble- 
some, but many of them are 
the carriers of disease germs 
from the sick to the healthy. 
Texas fever, which is a seri- 
ous handicap to cattle rais- 
ing in the Southern states, 
is spread by the biting of the 
cattle ticks. Yellow fever is spread only by the bites 
of the yellow fever mosquito ; and malaria is carried 




Cotton Boll Weevil 

(Magnified) 



INSECTS 



233 



by the malarial mosquito. Even the common mos- 
quito is an intolerable pest, although not a carrier of 
disease. The house fly, now called the typhoid fly, 

is often the agent that car- 
ries typhoid germs from in- 
fected matter to our food. 

Classes of insect pests. — 
Insect pests are of five gen- 
eral classes : (1) those which 
eat the leaves and stems of 




Spraying Trees and Vegetables 



plants ; (2) those which suck the juices of plants ; 

(3) those which bore into plants, feeding on the inside 
of tree trunks, stems of smaller plants, fruits, and seeds ; 

(4) those which suck the blood of animals ; (5) those 
which are carriers of infected matter. 



234 



INSECTS 



The leaf-feeding insects and other external feeders 
can be successfully killed by spraying poisons upon 
the foliage. By eating the foliage with the poison on 
the surface these insects are destroyed. The food of 
the juice-sucking insects cannot be poisoned, and these 
pests, such as plant lice and scale insects, are killed 
by poisons sprayed upon their bodies. The soap and 




Mosquito Wigglers 

petroleum emulsions are effective sprays to kill by con- 
tact. The young worms of the codling moth can be 
destroyed by sprays before they enter the apples. 

Mosquitoes. — Another effective method of dealing 
with insect pests is the destruction of breeding places. 
Mosquitoes can be prevented by draining marshes 
and other wet places in which the eggs are laid. The 
young mosquitoes, which are the wigglers that we often 
see in standing water, may be easily killed by pouring 
kerosene over the water. 

Destruction of breeding places. — By preventing 
the access of flies to garbage and stable manure, the 



INSECTS 235 

breeding of millions can be prevented. Brush and 
other rubbish in orchards and forests are the breeding 
places of many insect pests. The burning of such 
breeding spots is an extremely effective method of 
reducing insect enemies of orchards and forests. 

Rotation of crops. — Insects that attack one kind 
of crop may be starved to death by planting another 
kind of crop on the land. Thus rotation of crops re- 
duces the number of insects. Some crops may be 
saved from insect attacks by early or late planting. 
For example, if cotton is planted early, the bolls are 
formed before the boll weevils have become numerous ; 
and the late planting of wheat saves it from the Hes- 
sian fly. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are some of the most destructive insects? 

2. What insects are useful ? 

3. What are the most important insect enemies of wheat? 
Of corn ? Of cotton ? Of fruit trees ? Of shade trees ? 

4. What are the five classes of insect pests ? 

5. What disease common to the United States is transmitted 
by mosquitoes? What tropical disease is transmitted by a 
mosquito of tropical regions? What other diseases are fre- 
quently carried by insects ? 

6. What cattle disease is transmitted by insects? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Study the life history of the mosquito by observation. In 
the fall or spring place a tub of rain water out of doors, and each 
morning look for floating masses of mosquito eggs. Each mass 



236 INSECTS 

of eggs looks like a small flake of soot. In a day or two the eggs 
will hatch and the tiny wigglers can be seen in the water. Watch 
the growth of these wigglers. After several days they enter 
the pupa stage and spend most of the time floating head down 
from the surface. In a few days the adult mosquito emerges 
from the old pupa case. The tub should be covered in order 
to keep in the mosquitoes. 

2. In a dish of water containing wigglers add a drop or 
two of kerosene. Notice how soon the wigglers die. This is 
the method of destroying mosquitoes on a large scale in marshy 
land. 

3. Destroy the plant lice, other soft insects, and scale in- 
sects, which may infest house plants, by spraying with kerosene 
emulsion. Make the emulsion by dissolving one ounce of soap 
in a pint of boiling water and then adding one quart of kerosene. 
Have no fire near when the oil is added. Only a small part of 
this emulsion is used for a single spraying. For plant lice and 
other soft insects dilute the emulsion with 15 or 20 parts of rain 
water before spraying. For scale insects dilute with 10 parts 
of water. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 397, Bees ; 444, Remedies and preven- 
tives against mosquitoes; 447, Bees; 450, Some facts about 
malaria ; 453, Danger of general spread of the Gypsy and Brown- 
tail Moths through imported nursery stock ; 459, House flies ; 
503, Comb honey. 



LESSON LII 
FOOD OF FARM ANIMALS 

Food necessary for growth. — Besides air and water, 
all animals, as well as plants, must have food in order 
to live and grow ; and the feeding of animals is a large 
part of the farmer's work. 

A food is any substance that can be eaten and used 
in the body to produce growth and energy. Every 
animal is provided with automatic indicators of its 
needs. If it is thirsty, the body needs water ; and if it 
is hungry, the body needs food. The natural appetite 
tells also what kind of food the body needs. Dif- 
ferent kinds of animals require different kinds of food. 
For example, a horse gets hungry for oats and hay, 
while such things would not taste good to a dog, be- 
cause the dog requires meat. Most animals need a 
variety of foods. A man would starve if fed on bread 
alone, because it does not contain, every thing he needs. 

Materials in food. — In addition to water, there are 
four kinds of materials in food ; and all animals need 
these materials in the right proportions. These ma- 
terials are minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. 
The minerals, with the exception of salt, are usually 
present in sufficient quantities in the natural foods. 

237 



238 FOOD OF FARM ANIMALS 

Small amounts of salt must be fed to farm animals in 
most regions. The farmer in the British Isles does not 
need to give salt to his cattle, for the salt air from the 
sea gives a e saltness to the pasture grasses. 

Protein is the part of food that contains nitrogen, 
and is the muscle-forming substance in food. Albumin 
in the white of egg, myosin in lean meat, casein in the 
curd of milk, and gluten in wheat grain are familiar 
examples of protein. More or less protein is found in 
all vegetable and animal food products. 

Starch and sugar are common examples of carbo- 
hydrates. The carbohydrates supply energy to ani- 
mals, in the form of heat and work. Carbohydrates 
may be converted by the animals into fat. An animal 
that fattens easily has the power to convert the sugar 
and starch of its food into fat. 

Fats. — The lard of hogs, the tallow of cattle and 
sheep, and butter are well-known fats. In vegetable 
foods there is some fat. Nuts and corn contain con- 
siderable fat, and cottonseed oil and olive oil are oily 
fats. The fat in the grain and other foods has the 
same use in the body of an animal that starch and 
sugar have. 

A balanced ration for an animal is the right amount 
of food containing the proper proportions of proteins, 
carbohydrates, and fat. For example, a cow that 
weighs 1000 pounds and gives 22 pounds of milk per day 
ought to eat about 29 pounds (dry weight) of food in 
which there are 2.5 pounds of protein, 13 pounds of 



FOOD OF FARM ANIMALS 239 

carbohydrates, and .5 pound of fat. She would get 
close to this amount and proportion, if she were fed 
15 pounds of corn fodder, 10 pounds of alfalfa hay, 10 
pounds sugar beets, and 8 pounds wheat bran each day. 
If she gives more milk, or is a larger cow, she will 
need more food. Fattening animals should be given 
feed that contains a high proportion of carbohydrates 
and fat. Milk contains much protein, and therefore 
dairy cattle should have feed that contains a greater 
proportion of protein than that of fattening steers. 



QUESTIONS 

1 . In addition to water, what are the four classes of materials 
in foods ? 

2. What foods are rich in protein ? 

3. What foods are rich in carbohydrates? 

4. What seeds used as food contain a large amount of fat? 

5. What is a balanced ration? 

6. How should the food of a dairy cow differ from that of a 
fattening steer? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Place a small quantity of flour in a muslin bag. Knead 
the flour in a vessel of water until all the starch of the flour is 
removed. The gummy substance left in the bag is gluten, the 
protein of wheat. 

2. Examine the curd of milk. This is casein, the protein of 
milk. 

2. Crush the seeds of flax and cotton on a sheet of white 
paper. Note the oily spots on the paper. Note also the oily 



240 FOOD OF FARM ANIMALS 

feeling of the crushed seeds. From soaked grains of corn re- 
move the germs or embryos and test in the same way for the 
presence of oil or fat. 

3. Make a careful study of bulletins on the feeding of animals 
and determine a balanced ration for a dairy cow of a definite 
weight, using feeds produced on farms in your locality. Deter- 
mine a balanced ration for a fattening steer of definite weight. 

REFERENCES 

Write to the Agricultural College of your state for bulletins on 
the feeding of animals. 

Farmers' Bulletins : 346, Computation of rations for farm 
animals by use of energy values. 



LESSON LIII 
THE FARMERS FRIENDS 

Animal life. — There are many birds, insects, and 
other animals that are helpful to the farmer. It is 
wrong to kill wantonly any living thing, and it is a 
greater wrong to kill animals that serve us only while 
living. 

Uses of birds. — Nearly all birds do far more good 
than harm. While much can be said against the Eng- 
lish sparrow, yet this bird eats large quantities of in- 
sects and weed seeds. Crows, blackbirds, and wood- 
peckers do considerable damage, but by destroying 
insect pests they do more good than harm. Some of 
the most useful birds are the quail, kingbird, phcebe, 
meadowlark, cuckoos, orioles, native sparrows, wrens, 
chickadee, bluebird, and robin. A great number of 
other birds may be added to this list. Apart from 
their usefulness the birds are attractive because of 
their songs and plumage, and all birds should be pro- 
tected until it is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that 
they are more harmful than useful. The damage done 
by birds in eating fruit and grain is trifling compared 
with the good done in eating countless millions of nox- 
ious insects and weed seeds. 

B. AND D. AG. l6 241 



242 



THE FARMER'S FRIENDS 




Orchard Oriole 



Sparrow Hawk 




i3tes^ 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo 

Some Useful Birds 



Carolina Wren 



THE FARMER'S FRIENDS 



243 




Useful insects. — Many insects are useful because 
they destroy a large number of injurious insects. The 
ground beetles, tiger beetles, mud wasps, ladybird 
beetles, and ichneumon flies belong to the group of 
useful insects. The ladybird beetle is of great impor- 
tance in destroying the 
San Jose scale insects 
that infest the citrus 
orchards of California. 
The ichneumon flies de- 
stroy the larvae of moths 
and butterflies by laying 
eggs on or in the bodies 
of the caterpillars. The 
eggs hatch into small 
maggots that kill the 
caterpillars. The bees not only gather honey, but 
fertilize flowers by carrying pollen from one flower to 
another. Without this pollination by bees we cannot 
raise clover seed. Farmers are learning how to make 
use of friendly insects, and are importing some kinds 
from foreign countries to help destroy injurious insects. 

The toad is a great friend to the farmer, and especially 
to the gardener. This animal eats a remarkably large 
number of cutworms, army worms, caterpillars, gypsy 
moths, brown-tail moths, rose chafers, wireworms 
potato beetles, thousand-legged worms, sow bugs, and 
snails. Toads are so valuable that they ought to be 
protected. In gardens, natural shelters should be 



Toad 



244 THE FARMER'S FRIENDS 

made for them, and the thoughtless cruelty of the small 
boy should be stopped. 



QUESTIONS 

i. In what ways do useful birds help the farmer? 

2. What birds are of greatest value to the farmer ? 

3. What birds in your state are protected by law? What 
birds are considered harmful ? 

4. In what way is the ichneumon fly useful ? 

5. What service is rendered to the farmer by bumblebees? 

6. In what ways are toads useful on the farm? 



PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

1. Find out by observation what things are eaten by the 
various species of birds. Make a list of birds that search for 
food among the leaves of trees ; of birds that search for insects 
in the bark of trees ; of birds that catch flying insects ; of birds 
that eat weed seeds ; of birds that live on insects and other 
small animals in the ground. 

2. In the fall look for large caterpillars whose backs are cov- 
ered with small, white cocoons that inclose the pupae of ich- 
neumon flies. When you find such a caterpillar, keep it in a 
glass jar until the adult flies emerge from the cocoons. An ich- 
neumon fly laid her eggs in or on the body of the caterpillar. 
The young maggots that hatched from the eggs fed upon the 
blood of the caterpillar, and some time before its death they 
came out to the surface and formed cocoons about themselves. 
You may find a caterpillar at the time when the maggots are 
coming out of its body. As you watch, you may see the forma- 
tion of the cocoons. 



THE FARMER'S FRIENDS 245 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 54, Some common birds in their relation 
to agriculture ; 196, Usefulness of the American toad ; 456, 
Our grosbeaks and their value to agriculture ; 506, Food of some 
well-known birds of forest, farm, and garden ; 513, Fifty common 
birds of farm and orchard. 

Selected Readings: The Birds of Killingworth, — Long- 
fellow; The Meadow Lark, — Hamlin Garland; Bluebird, — 
T. B. Aldrich; Song the Oriole Sings, — W. D. Ho wells ; Song 
of the Toad, — John Burroughs. 



LESSON LIV 
IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 

Selecting seed. — Each fall the successful farmer 
goes through his cornfield and selects the seed corn 
from the best plants in the field. He is sure that the 
seed from stalks with large, well-filled ears will produce 
a crop of high yield the following summer. When the 
forester goes through the forest to select seeds from 
which to grow young trees, he is careful to gather seeds 
from only healthy and well-formed trees. He knows 
that the best trees bear seeds that will develop into 
good trees, and that diseased or otherwise defective 
trees will produce seeds that will develop into defective 
trees. The stock farmer will use only the best animals 
for breeding purposes, for he knows that " like pro- 
duces like." Heredity is the law of organic life that 
causes offspring to resemble the parents. Using this 
law of heredity the farmer selects seeds of the best 
plants to produce the next crop, and also chooses only 
the best animals for breeding purposes. This selec- 
tion of the best plants and animals to produce a new 
generation is one of the ways in which improvements of 
domesticated plants and animals have come about. 

Law of variation. — While offspring resemble the 
parents, yet they are not similar to the parents in every 

246 



IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 247 

particular. The law in organic life by which offspring 
have some difference or variation from the parents is 
called the law of variation. By methods of breeding 
that cause variations to become permanent characters, 
we have obtained beef cattle and dairy cattle, mutton 
sheep and wool sheep, draft horses and race horses, 
and many other breeds, each of which possesses some 
particular advantage. 

Environment largely determines the character of 
plants and animals. For example, on the lower slopes 
of high mountains, where the climate and soil are fa- 
vorable, the evergreen trees are large and of good 
form, while at the upper limit of trees near the snow 
line the evergreens, although of the same species as 
those of the lower forests, are only two or three feet 
high and bushy in form. At this high elevation the 
hard conditions of life have stunted the trees. The 
small Shetland ponies are the result of the severe cli- 
matic conditions of their native home, the Shetland 
Islands, of the far north. By making a better environ- 
ment for the domesticated animals and plants man has 
greatly improved them. Shelter from severe weather, 
and the proper amount and kind of food have made 
the farm animals more serviceable to man than their 
wild ancestors. By improving the soil man has im- 
proved the character of cultivated plants. 

Crossbreeding is another method of improving 
plants and animals. For example, one variety of 
corn may have one very useful character, and another 



248 IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 

variety may have a different useful character ; and 
by a crossing of the two varieties a new variety may be 
obtained that will possess the two useful characters 
of both parent varieties. Crossbreeding either of 
plants or of animals always produces variations, but 
these variations may be of no value. If there is to be 
a gain in crossbreeding, the new variation must be an 
improvement, and must become a hereditary char- 
acter in the new variety. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What is the law of heredity? 

2. How does the farmer use the law of heredity to improve 
plants and animals ? 

3. What is the law of variation? 

4. What effect has environment upon qualities of plants and 
animals? Give examples. 

5. What is crossbreeding? 

REFERENCES 

Write to your Agricultural College for bulletins on animal 
breeding and plant breeding. 



LESSON LV 



IRRIGATION FARMING 



Irrigation is the application of water to the land in 
addition to that received by the fall of rain and snow. 
While irrigation is generally confined to arid and semi- 
arid regions, yet to a limited extent it is practiced in 
humid regions. An arid region is usually defined as 
a part of the country in which the total precipitation 
for the year amounts to less than fifteen inches of water. 
A region having an annual precipitation of from fifteen 
to twenty-five inches is regarded as semiarid land. The 
term " precipitation " includes rain and snow, ten inches 
of snow being equal, on an average, to one inch of rain. 




Irrigating Canal 
249 



250 IRRIGATION FARMING 

Systems of irrigation. — The most common irrigation 
system consists of a dam across a stream from which 
the water is taken, a canal that leads the water to the 
area to be watered, and the laterals or small ditches 
through which the water is brought from the canal 
to the farms. The dam across the stream may simply 
divert part of the water into the canal, or it may 
be so large that it converts a part of the valley 
on the upper side into an immense reservoir in 
which the flood waters may be stored for irrigation 
purposes. 

Methods of applying water. — There are several 
methods of applying water to the soil. The kind of 
crop, the size of the irrigated area, and the character 
of the soil and surface are important factors that de- 
termine the method of applying the water. 

In aerial irrigation the water is distributed by pipes 
and sprinklers. Lawns are commonly so watered. 
Orchards, gardens, and greenhouse benches are often 
subirrigated ; that is, by underground pipes or tiles 
the water is carried to the soil around the roots of 
the plants. 

Pasture grasses and hay and small grains are usually 
irrigated by flooding. The water is run directly over 
the surface and around the growing plants. In furrow 
irrigation the water is run in furrows between the rows 
of trees or other plants. This is the method by which 
orchards, corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables are 
usually watered. 



IRRIGATION FARMING 



251 



On very level land, basins are formed by throwing 
up ridges of soil. A basin may be a small one around 
each tree in an orchard, or it may cover one or more 
acres of a field. When the plants need water, it is 
allowed to flow 
into the basins 
from the ditches 
or laterals. This 
method is called 
basin irrigation. 
In check irriga- 
tion ridges of 
soil are thrown 
up across a field 
to check and 
guide the water 
that flows over 
the surface from 
the lateral. This 
method, called 
check irrigation, 
is a modification of flood irrigation. There are several 
modifications of each of these methods. 

Irrigation in ancient times. — Irrigation farming has 
been practiced since very ancient times. In Egypt, 
thousands of years ago, there were irrigation works, 
and the annual overflows of the Nile also irrigated large 
areas in the river valley. In the southwestern part of 
the United States, long before the discovery of America 




Irrigating Fruit Trees 



252 IRRIGATION FARMING 

by Columbus, the native people had large irrigation 
systems. The first irrigation in this country in modern 
times was done by the people of Utah in 1847, when 
the water of City Creek was used to irrigate the gardens 
near Great Salt Lake. At the present time several 
millions of acres in the United States are farmed by 
irrigation, and great irrigation works are being con- 
structed for the reclamation of more land. 

In Japan, raising crops by irrigation has been prac- 
ticed many years, although the annual rainfall amounts 
to as much as forty inches. In parts of our own coun- 
try, where the rainfall is thirty-five or forty inches, 
some farmers are adopting irrigation to supplement 
the rainfall. In the intensive growing of fruits and 
vegetables in market gardens, an irrigation system may 
often save the crops in dry seasons. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What is irrigation? 

2. In what sections of our country is irrigation carried on 
extensively ? 

3. What other countries practice irrigation? 

4. What are the main parts of an irrigation system? 

5. By what methods is water distributed to the crops? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins : 138, Irrigation in field and garden ; 158, 
How to build small irrigation ditches ; 263, Practical informa- 
tion for beginners in irrigation; 392, Irrigation of sugar beets; 
399, Irrigation of grain ; 404, Irrigation of orchards. 



LESSON LVI 
DRAINAGE 

Importance of drainage. - - Farm land should be 
well drained in order to be highly productive. At one 
time it was thought that drainage was useful only in 
removing the surface water from low ground. After 
some time the farmers realized that underdrainage is 
valuable even on lands that have good natural drainage. 

Underdrainage. — A ditch for underdrainage is 
made by digging a trench from two to four feet deep 
and with sufficient slope that water will readily flow 
to lower levels. On the bottom of the trench drain 
tiles are placed end to end to form a continuous tube, 
and then the trench is filled with earth. The depth 
of the ditch puts the tile beyond the reach of the plow 
and frost and permits the draining away of the ground 
water to the proper depth. The water enters the tube 
through the spaces between the ends of the tiles. 

Effects of drainage. — Drainage not only helps the 
crop by removing the free water from the soil, but also 
aids it to survive a drought. In undrained land the 
ground water lies near the surface until dry weather 
sets in, and the root system of the crop will be confined 
to the shallow layer of soil above the water line. If a 
long dry period sets in, the ground water sinks to a 

253 



254 



DRAINAGE 



depth of several feet, and the plants with their roots 
near the surface will suffer from the drought. In land 
with proper underdrainage the ground water is not 
near the surface at any time, and the roots of the crop 
sink deeper into the soil and thus have a greater depth 
of soil from which to get the food materials ; and the 




wmrrr- ■ -.tf^w >Jr%^ •'>-,*. •>=* -. . -S. 






^i .'<*• 



=■== 



^S)" , "y 



Drain Tiles 

greater root depth also enables the plants to get a larger 
supply of moisture during a dry season. 

Roots need air. — It must be remembered that the 
roots of plants need air, and that free water in the soil 
excludes the air. In drained soils, as the water passes 
from the soil into the ditch the air enters the pores of 
the soil to replace the water. Thus good drainage 
admits air to the soil and roots. 



DRAINAGE 255 

Drainage and warmth. - A wet soil becomes warm 
more slowly than a dry soil, for the water in the soil 
takes up so much of the sun's heat. Drainage, by 
removing the surplus water, hastens the warming of 
the soil in the spring. 

Swamp lands. - In many soils that are irrigated, 
drainage is necessary. An application of water may 
so saturate the soil that unless there is good drainage, 
it becomes unproductive. In the United States there 
are still extensive areas of swamp lands that may be 
converted into fertile farms by draining away the 
water. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What are the advantages of having the soil well drained? 

2. In your locality how much of the land is unproductive 
because of poor drainage? 

3. How does underdrainage help crops to survive a drought? 

4. Why does a drained soil become warm earlier in the spring 
than a wet soil? 

5. What things determine the depth at which a tile ditch 
should be placed ? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Draw a map of the farm on which -you live, showing the 
location of the ditches. 

2. Visit a tile factory and study the operations in the manu- 
facture of tiles. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 187, Drainage of farm lands; 371, 
Drainage of irrigated lands. 



LESSON LVII 
DRY FARMING 

Farming in semiarid regions. — In the eastern half 
of the United States the rainfall of from twenty-five 
to sixty inches is sufficient for successful agriculture 
by common methods. In semiarid regions, where the 
rainfall amounts to from fifteen to twenty-five inches, 
the production of profitable crops is quite uncertain 
under the ordinary farm practice. To raise crops 
without irrigation in these regions requires special 
methods of tillage and special kinds of crops. The 
growing of drought-resistant crops by tillage methods 
that enable the soil to gather and hold the largest pos- 
sible amount of moisture is dry farming. 

Soil moisture. — There are three ways by which the 
soil loses the moisture it receives from rain and snow. 
A large part of it sinks into the ground and passes away 
by drainage, part of it comes to the surface and evap- 
orates into the air, and another part is taken up by 
the growing plants and transpired into the air from 
the leaves. 

Methods of retaining soil moisture. — To secure and 
retain the largest possible amount of soil moisture from 
rain and snow, the following operations are carried on 
in the dry-farming belt. 

256 



DRY FARMING 



257 



(1) Plowing the soil deep and pulverizing it to ob- 
tain a fine, loose texture, so that the soil will absorb 
all the moisture that falls as rain or snow. 

(2) Compacting the subsoil, if it is very loose, so 
that the soil particles, by lying closer together, will 
enable water from below to rise within reach of the 
roots of the growing crops. 

(3) Stirring the upper three or four inches of soil 
so that it acts as a blanket or mulch to prevent the 
moisture from reaching the surface where it would 
evaporate into the air. 

(4) Keeping down all weeds, which take up moisture 
from the soil and by transpiration allow it to pass into 
the air. 

(5) Tilling the land during one season by these 
special methods before planting the crop. By this 
system the crop gets practically all the moisture that 
comes to the land in two seasons instead of one, and 
the farmer has only one half of his land in crop each 
year. 

(6) Adding vegetable matter to the soil, which will 
help to absorb and hold water as well as add food ma- 
terials for plants. 

Plants suitable for dry farming. — The second part 
of dry farming is the growing of plants that can be 
raised with a small amount of water. Our most 
drought-resistant plants are those that have been pro- 
duced in the semiarid region of our own country or 
have been brought from other dry countries. Some of 

B. AXD D. AG. — 17 



2 5 8 



DRY FARMING 




Dry Grown Wheat 



DRY FARMING 



2 59 



these are durum or macaroni wheat, spring and winter 
emmer, Kafir corn, milo maize, sweet clover, and 
brome grass. 

Dry farming an important method. Dry farming 
has been practiced in parts of the West for a number of 
years, and is now being made a special study by farm- 
ers in all parts of the arid and semiarid sections of the 
country. Through these methods much land that 
was not adapted to farming under old methods has 
come under cultivation, thus greatly increasing the 
whole farm area of the country. 



QUESTIONS 



1 . What is dry farming ? 



By what methods is sufficient water stored in the soil ? 
In what section of our country is dry farming carried on ? 
What are some of the drought-resistant crops? 
Why are large farms necessary in the dry-farming region ? 



REFERENCES 

If you live in the dry-farming section, write to the Agricultural 
College of your state for bulletins on dry farming. Yearbook of 
Agriculture, 1911: Some misconceptions concerning dry farm- 
ing, pp. 247-256; The water economy of dry-land crops, pp. 
35!-362. 



LESSON LVIII 
BEAUTIFYING THE HOME GROUNDS 

Importance of beautiful surroundings. — Every one 
who has driven along country roads has felt the gloom 
of ugly homesteads, and also the charm of beautiful 
farm homes, many of which are less expensive than 
the ugly places. Every farm home can be made more 
beautiful by planting trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, and 
grass. It requires a little time and thought, but al- 
most no money, to transform an ugly place into an 










An Unattractive Farm House 

attractive one. Not only does the beauty of farm 
surroundings add to the happiness and healthfulness 
of farm life, but it gives also a distinctly higher market 
value to any farm. 

260 



BEAUTIFYING THE HOME GROUNDS 261 



Neatness. — Very much of the disorderliness of a 
farmstead is due to a poor arrangement of farm build- 
ings. For example, a yard in which live stock have 
free range should never be placed between the house 




Trees and Shrubs give the House a more Pleasing Appearance 

and barn. A miry barnyard between the house and 
barn is not only unsightly but inconvenient and dirty. 
Neatness, too, is one of the necessary conditions to 
beauty of surroundings. Broken fences and gates 
should be promptly repaired ; and ashes, tin cans, and 
other rubbish should not be allowed to accumulate 
near the house. 

Lawns. — A grassy lawn is one of the most important 
features of a homestead. The lawn should be smooth, 
well drained, and covered with a carpet of grass. Poul- 
try are a common cause of unsightly house yards. 
To prevent grass plots and flower beds from being con- 
verted into dust baths, and to insure clean walks, chick- 
ens and other poultry should be excluded from the lawn. 



262 BEAUTIFYING THE HOME GROUNDS 



Shrubbery. - The selection and placing of shrubbery 
and flowers should be done with good taste. Lawns 
should not be overcrowded with flower beds and 
shrubs. A good place for flowers is along the founda- 
tion of the house and the border of the walks. Some- 
times a pleasing effect can be obtained by filling an 
angle at the side of a house with flowering shrubs 

or small evergreen 
trees closely massed 
together. 

Trees around a 
homestead serve for 
beauty, shade, and 
protection against 
storms. In locali- 
ties where high 
winds are frequent, 
a shelter belt of 
trees is planted on the windward side of the house, and 
adds much to the attractiveness of the place. For 
shade and beauty some of the fruit trees serve well. 
In such trees as the apple tree there is a high degree 
of beauty and utility combined. 

Paint is an important factor in beautifying the farm- 
stead. Some buildings are unsightly for lack of paint, 
and others are distressingly ugly by reason of the color of 
the paint, or the use of several colors that lack harmony. 
No farm home should be vulgarized by glaring advertise- 
ments spread over the side or roof of a barn. 



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BEAUTIFYING THE HOME GROUNDS 263 

You can help. — Boys and girls can do much to beau- 
tify their home surroundings. They should always 
keep in mind that it costs little to make the homestead 
attractive ; and that beauty, usefulness, and health- 
fulness belong together. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What are some of the things that make ugly surroundings 
on a farm ? 

2. What are some of the advantages of beautiful surround- 
ings? 

3. By what means may a good lawn be secured? 

4. What are some of the disadvantages of an overshaded 
lawn? 

5. What plants serve well for beautifying a farmstead? 

PRACTICAL EXERCISES 

i. Make a plan of a farmstead, showing the location of house 
and lawn, well, barn, sheds, garden, orchard, lots, driveways, 
and walks. 

2. Draw a planting plan for a lawn, showing the location of 
trees, shrubs, flowers, walks, etc. 

3. Draw a plan of the most beautiful farmstead in your 
locality. 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 185, Beautifying the home grounds; 
The lawn; 494, Lawn soils and lawns. 



LESSON LIX 
THE FARM HOME 

Home. — A home should be more than a place of 
shelter. It should be also a place of inspiration, joy, 
and peace. The home is the foundation of civilization, 
because it helps us more than any other agency to 
secure vigorous and good character. 

Modern conveniences in the country. — We are apt 
to get wrong ideas of the so-called advantages of city 
life. All the modern conveniences of city houses are 
going into farmhouses, thus increasing the comfort 
and healthfulness of these homes. The loneliness of 
farm life has largely disappeared by reason of good 
roads, electric railroads, rural mail delivery, and tele- 
phones. The abundance of fresh air and ground space, 
the freedom from the dust and noise of streets, the 
inspiration of close contact with nature, and the op- 
portunity for quiet study and reading are some of the 
best features of home life on the farm. 

Window plants can add much to the beauty of the 
home. Caring for these plants and watching their 
growth will furnish many pleasant hours. Geraniums, 
begonias, and heliotropes can be started easily from 
cuttings. For foliage the English ivy and many of the 
ferns are desirable house plants. The tulip, hyacinth, 

264 



THE FARM HOME 



265 



and narcissus are good bulb plants for winter blooming 
and are easily grown. 

House plants need rich soil with good drainage. 
The air should not be too hot and dry. In most 
houses the air is too dry for the health of plants and 
people. Care must be 
taken to keep them well 
watered and free from 
insects and fungous 
diseases. 

Importance of beau- 
tiful surroundings. — 
The advantages that 
come from the isolation 
of each farm home mav 
become disadvantages, 
if the proper home con- 
ditions do not exist. 
There mav be a bitter 
monotony in farm life, 
if the surroundings are 
ugly, and if the spirit of the home is harsh and unkind. 
Some farmers do not realize the value of beautiful 
houses with pictures, music, and books, and they miss 
much of the pleasure and inspiration that otherwise 
they would enjoy. 

Peace in the home. The spirit of the family that 
lives in the house determines more the character of the 
home than the house and surroundings do. Nearly 



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266 THE FARM HOME 

all the work of the family is done on the farm, and the 
members of the family are together more than the 
members of many families in the city are. The close 
association during hours of work and recreation is a 
blessing, if love prevails in the thoughts, words, and 
acts of each one in the family. 

The ideal farm home is one in which, to the natural- 
ness and independence of farm life, there are added good 
manners, correct speech, and the high virtues that 
have given character to the best American homes. 



QUESTIONS 

i. What are some of the advantages of farm life over city 
life ? What are some of the disadvantages ? 

2. What conveniences do we now have, that make farm life 
more attractive ? 

3. Of what value are books and pictures ? 

4. Do the farmers in your community have proper regard 
for the things that develop real culture in their homes ? 

REFERENCES 

Farmers' Bulletins: 126, Practical suggestions for farm 
buildings; 270, Modern conveniences for the farm home. 

Selected Readings: Little Brown Hands, — Mary H. Krout; 
Snowbound, — J. G. Whittier; Being a Boy, chapters III, XI, 
XII, XIII, — C. D. Warner. 



LESSON LX 
THE CALL TO THE FARM 

Farming is one of the most pleasant occupations. 
Nearly everybody is interested in the cultivation of the 
soil and in the raising of animals. Indeed, there seems 
to be a natural longing to work with the soil, which 
comes to every one sometime during his life. 

Farming demands intelligence. -The farmer works 
with living plants and animals and with all the natural 
forces in soil, air, water, and sunshine that affect the 
growth of plants and animals. Boys and girls should 
fully realize that the farm offers a good field for the 
exercise of all the skill and scholarship that they can 
attain. Although farming is a special business that 
requires broad and thorough knowledge, yet one may 
do fairly successful work on the farm while he is learning 
the underlying principles of the science and art of 
agriculture. 

A desirable occupation. — There has been a false 
impression that tilling the soil is a hard and low kind 
of labor. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
Great minds in all ages have considered farming a 
most desirable occupation. All accomplishment comes 
through some form of labor ; and labor becomes a 

267 



268 THE CALL TO THE FARM 

pleasure and an inspiration when one does his work 
with interest and intelligence. Work is wholesome, and 
no other kind of work leads to longer, happier lives, 
and greater development of mind and body than of 
producing useful things from the soil. 

Modern conveniences. — Farming is continually 
becoming more pleasant and more profitable. It is 
not necessary to work longer hours, or do more work 
than in other walks of life. With the growth of knowl- 
edge and the development of machinery and methods, 
which enable the farmer to do more work with less 
effort, there is more inducement to lead this kind of 
life. In these modern times the successful farmer can 
build a house that has every convenience and luxury 
to be found in the best city house. He can produce 
larger and better crops with less labor than formerly, 
and has as much or more leisure for study and pleasure. 

Living close to the soil. — In short, the people on 
the farm feed and clothe the world and do much to 
supply it with strong men and women of force and 
virtue. The hope of the world is greatness of char- 
acter. Living close to the soil and in harmony with 
nature makes for that simplicity which is greatness. 
Any one who decides to be a farmer may well be proud 
of the life work he has chosen. 



INDEX 



Acidity of soil, 29. 

Agriculture, 7. 

Air in soil, 21. 

Albumin, 238. 

Alcohol, 107, 124. 

Alfalfa, 87-90. 

Allspice, 161. 

Almonds, 190. 

Alsike clover, 85. 

American trotting horse, 208. 

Angora goats, 220. 

Apples, 167-170. 

Apricots, 174. 

Arbor Day, 196. 

Arid region, 32, 249. 

Ash, 63. 

Ayrshire, 213. 

Bacteria, 23, 63, 93, 200. 
Balanced ration, 238. 
Bamboo, 64. 
Bantams, 225. 
Barley, 11 8-1 21. 
Beans, 95. 
Beef cattle, 213 
Bees, 229-232. 
Beet sugar, 138 
Belgian, 209. 
Berkshire, 223. 
Berries, 185-188. 
Beverages, 157-160 
Birds, 241-244. 
Blackberries, 187. 
Black locust, 53. 
Blue grass, 81. 
Boll weevil, 232, 235. 
Brahmas, 225. 
Brome grass, 259. 
Broom corn, 91. 
Buckwheat, 64. 
Budding, 55. 
Buffalo grass, 43. 



Cacao, 159. 

Calcium, 28. 

Canaigre, 163. 

Carbohydrates, 238. 

Casein, 238. 

Cattle, 211-215. 

Cereals, 64. 

Cherries, 173. 

Chester White, 223. 

Chestnuts, 189. 

Cheviot, 216. 

Chickens, 225. 

Chicle, 164. 

Chocolate, 159. 

Cinnamon, 161. 

Citron, 179. 

Citrus fruits, 176-179. 

Clay, 23. 

Cleveland Bay, 209. 

Climate, 14-20, 103. 

Clover, 83-86. 

Cloves, 161. 

Clydesdale, 209. 

Cochins, 225. 

Cocoa, 159. 

Codling moth, 234. 

Coffee, 157, 158. 

Commerce, 8. 

Corn products, 107. 

Cotswold, 216. 

Cotton, 125-129. 

Cotton boll weevil, 232-235. 

Cotton gin, 127. 

Cottonseed meal, 128. 

Cottonseed oil, 128. 

Cotyledons, 50. 

Cowpeas, 94. 

Cranberry, 185. 

Crimson clover, 85. 

Crop, 7. 

Crossbreeding, 247. 

Cucumbers, 149. 

269 



270 



INDEX 



Cultivation, 38, 39, 105. 
Cultivators, 38. 
Currants, 188. 
Cuttings, 52, 144. 

Dairy cattle, 213. 

Dairy products, 214. 

Dewberries, 187. 

Dibble, 59. 

Downs, 216. 

Draft animals, 70. 

Drainage, 253-255. 

Drought-resistant plants, 257. 

Drug plants, 67. 

Dry farming, 256-259. 

Duroc Jersey, 223. 

Durum, 259. 

Dwarf rape, 81. 

Eggs, 225. 
Einkorn, 101. 
Embryo, 49. 
Emmer, 101. 
Engines, 70. 
English Coach, 209. 
Essex, 223. 
Evaporation, 32. 

Farms, 10-13. 

Fats, 238-240. 

Feeders, 204. 

Fertility of soil, 26-30. 

Fertilizers, 27-29. 

Film water, 31, 35. 

Flax, 130-132. 

Floriculture, 8. 

Florida clover, 85. 

Fodder, 81. 

Food of farm animals, 237-240. 

Forage, 79. 

Forestry, 194-197. 

Forests, 194-195. 

Formaldehyde, 201. 

Free water, 32. 

French Coach, 209. 

Frosts, 18. 

Galloway, 213. 
Gardening, 154-156. 
Geese, 227. 



Germ, 49. 

German Coach, 20Q. 
Germination, 50, 109. 
Ginger, 161. 
Ginseng, 161. 
Glucose, 139. 
Gluten, 238. 
Goats, 216-221. 
Gooseberries, 188. 
Gourds, 149. 
Grafting, 54-55. 
Grapefruit, 176-179. 
Grapes, 180-184. 
Grasses, 64. 
Grazing, 7, 80. 
Growing season, 15. 
Guayule, 163. 
Guernsey, 213. 

Hackney, 209. 
Hambletonian, 208. 
Harrow, 46. 
Harvesting, 73-77. 
Hay, 76, 77. 
Heavy soil, 24. 
Hemp, 132, 133. 
Henequin, 133. 
Heredity, 246. 
Hereford, 213. 
Hessian fly, 232, 235. 
Hickory nuts, 189. 
Holstein, 213. 
Home grounds, 260-263. 
Honey, 229-232. 
Hops, 165. 

Horned Dorsets, 216. 
Horses, 206-210. 
Hotbed, 47, 57. 
House fly, 233, 234. 
Humus, 23, 29. 

Iceland pony, 208. 
Ichneumon fly, 243, 244. 
Implements, 38, 46. 
Indian pony, 208. 
Indigo, 163. 
Insects, 229-236. 
Irrigation, 249, 252. 

Japan clover, 85. 
Jersey, 213. 



INDEX 



271 



Jerusalem corn, qt. 
Jute, 134. 

Kafir corn, 91. 

Kentucky saddle horse, 208. 

Kumquat, 178. 

Ladybird beetle, 243. 

Lamb, 218. 

Lawns, 261. 

Legumes, 27, 68, 87, 93, 192. 

Leicester, 216. 

Lemons, 176-179. 

Lentils, 96. 

Light soil, 24. 

Lime, 29. 

Lincoln, 216. 

Loam, 23. 

Loganberry, 188. 

Malaria, 232. 

Malt, 120. 

Manila hemp, 134. 

Maple sugar, 138, 139. 

Melons, 147-149. 

Merino, 216. 

Millet, 91. 

Milo maize, 91. 

Minerals, 237. 

Mixed farming, 203-205. 

Modern conveniences, 264, 268. 

Mohair, 220. 

Moisture in soil, 31-34. 

Molds, 63. 

Morgan, 208. 

Mosquitoes, 232-236. 

Mulberry, 67, 229. 

Mulch, soil, 35, 105. 

Mules, 209. 

Mushrooms, 63, 104. 

Muskmelons, 148. 

Mutton, 218. 

Myosin, 238. 

National forests, 195. 
Nectarines, 172. 
Nitrogen, 27, 93. 
Nodules, 93. 
Nurseries, 58. 
Nutmegs, 161. 
Nuts, 189-193. 



Oats, H4-TT7. 
Oxford Downs, 216. 

Paint, 262. 
Peaches, 171, 172. 
Peanuts, 190-193. 
Pear blight, 200. 
Pears, 169. 
Peas, 94. 
Pecans, 190. 
Pepper, 161. 
Peppermint, 164. 
Percheron, 209. 
Phosphorus, 28. 
Photosynthesis, 62. 
Pigeons, 227. 
Pifion nuts, 189. 
Plant diseases, 200-202. 
Plant lice, 234, 236. 
Plowing, 40, 42, 70. 
Plows, 40-42. 
Plums, 172. 
Plymouth Rocks, 225. 
Poland-China, 223. 
Polled Angus, 213. 
Pollination, 243. 
Pome fruits, 167-170. 
Pork, 224. 
Potassium, 28. 
Potatoes, 141-146. 
Poultry, 225-228. 
Power, 69-72. 
Precipitation, 249. 
Proteins, 238-240. 
Prunes, 173. 
Pumpkins, 148, 149. 

Quinces, 169. 

Rainfall, 15, 32, 103. 
Raisins, 181. 
Raspberries, 187. 
Red clover, 85. 
Red Polled, 213. 
Rhode Island Reds, 225. 
Rice, in— 113. 
Roads, 13. 
Roller, 46. 
Root hairs, 61. 
Roots, 43. 
Rotation of crops, 68. 



272 



INDEX 



Rubber, 16,:;. 
Rusts, 200, 201. 
Rye, 122, 124. 

Sand, 23, 29. 

San Jose scale, 243. 

Scale insects, 234, 236. 

Scions, 54. 

Seasons, 14. 

Seedbed, 46-48. 

Seedlings, 54. 

Seeds, 49-51. 

Semiarid land, 32, 249, 256. 

Sheep, 216-221. 

Shetland pony, 208. 

Shire, 209. 

Shorthorn, 213. 

Shropshire Downs, 216. 

Shrubbery, 262. 

Silage, 79. 

Silo, 7g. 

Silk, 229. 

Silk worms, 229. 

Silt, 23. 

Smuts, 200-203. 

Soil, 21-25. 

kinds of, 23. 
Soil mulch, 35, 105. 
Sorghums, 91. 
Spelt, 101. 
Spices, 161. 
Spring wheat, 97. 
Squashes, 148. 
Starch, 238-240. 
Stocks, 54. 

Stone fruits, 171-175. 
Strawberries, 186. 
Subsoil, 23. 
Suffolk Punch, 209. 
Sugar, 62, 238. 
Sugar beets, 138. 
Sugar cane, 136-137. 
Sugar plants, 135-140. 
Sunlight, 60. 
Sunshine, 17. 
Sweet clover, 85. 
Sweet potatoes, 143-146. 



Swine, 222-224. 
Swiss, 213. 

Tamworth, 223. 
Tannin, 163. 
Tea, 158, 159. 
Texture of soil, 28. 
Texas fever, 232. 
Threshing machine, 99. 
Ticks, 232. 
Tillage, 35~3Q- 
Tillers, 97, 114. 
Timothy, 83-86. 
Toad, 243. 
Tobacco, 150-153. 
Tomatoes, 47, 156. 
Topsoil, 23. 
Transplanting, 57-60. 
Tubercles, 68. 
Turkeys, 227. 
Twine, 133. 
Typhoid fever, 233. 

Underdrainage, 253-255. 
Useful birds, 241. 

Vanilla bean, 164. 
Variation, 246. 
Vegetables, 65, 154, 156. 
Vetches, 93. 

Walnuts, 189, 190. 
Watermelons, 147. 
Water power, 71. 
Water supply, 11. 
Weather Bureau, 18. 
Weeds, 198-202. 
Wheat, 97-102. 
White clover, 85. 
Windbreaks, 194. 
Windmills, 71. 
Winds, 17. 
Winter wheat, 97. 
Woodlots, 12, 196. 
Wyandottes, 235. 

Yellow fever, 232. 
Yorkshire, 223. 



ALG 25 1913 



